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No.176 |
CHINA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
NEWSLETTER
The Ministry of Science and Technology
People's Republic of China
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January 30,1999 |
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IN THIS ISSUE
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Yarlung Zangbo Canyon: Confirmed the Largest Canyon in the World
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Results of Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon Expedition Publicized
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China's First Priority Basic Research Projects Started
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China's Fifth Successful Launch of Iridium Satellites
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New Member in China's Rocket Family
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S&T Cooperation Agreement Between China and EU
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Yarlung Zangbo Canyon:
Confirmed the Largest Canyon in the World
Thanks to their 37-day painstaking and arduous journey, Chinese Scientific Expedition Team have for the first time in the human history materialized the ambition of walking through the core section of Yarlung Zangbo Canyon and revealed its mysterious veil.
Since 1973, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Association on Scientific Expedition have carried out 5 comprehensive scientific surveys over the Canyon area, walked through the sections from Guopai to Baimagouxiong and from Xirang to Gandai, which laid a solid foundation for the last expedition. However, the 90-km core section of the Canyon along the river from Baimagouxiong to Chaqu and then to Gandai was too difficult for scientists to walk through at that time.
China's Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon Scientific Expedition Team of 46 people took off from Lhasa on October 23, 1998. It took them 37 days to literally walk through an unusually arduous journey of 500 and more kilometers winding through deep mountains, dense forests, cliffs and stiff gorges and wavy and rampant Yarlung Zangbo river. To reach a next landing, they often had to pave the way and bridge the water for themselves. As a reward, they harvested abundant scientific data and experience and explored the wonders in the Canyon. On December 3, 1998, the expedition team gathered at Chaqu, the northern tip of the turn of the Canyon and successfully completed the walk-through.
As briefed by the head of the expedition team, on the basis of on-the-spot investigation and preliminary ranging, Chinese scientists have reconfirmed the factthat Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon is the largest one in the world. Two team members State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping selected ten sites for the measurement and carried out on-the-spot measurement including altitude, longitude and latitude. They have also accurately measured the depth and bottom width of the Canyon. As shown by the results of integrated measurement, Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon is really the largest canyon in the world. Detailed data of measurements will be published in the near future.
Another major result of the said expedition is that scientists have reached a better understanding of hydraulic resources in the core section of the Canyon, especially in the section of 20 km running from Xixingzha to Rongzha, and discovered and confirmed the existence of 4 large waterfalls, of which 3 have the heights ranging from 30 to 35 meters with width from 50 to 120 meters. It is very rare to have so many large waterfalls going along major river trunks in the world. The falling gradient of this water section reaches 2.3%, ranking the first in the world.
The expedition team also carried investigations on other disciplines including geology, biology, atmosphere and hydrology. They collected more than 2000 samples of insects, plants, rocks and waters. The discovery and reconfirmation of theexistence of extensive Chinese yew forests and notchwing insects, the socalled living fossil, are of a great value.
Results of Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon Expedition Publicized
China Science and Technology Association and Chinese Academy of Sciences jointlyheld a report meeting on Yarlung Zangbo Scientific Expedition at China S&T Meeting Hall on December 30, 1998. Mr. Gao Dengyi, head of the expedition team and research fellow of Institute of Atmospheric Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences reported the results of the expedition to the participants.
He said the expedition had harvested results in five areas: 1. They have got further knowledge of hydraulic resources of the core river section of Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, especially the 20 km section running from Xixingzha to Rongzha, and proved, confirmed and discovered the existence of four waterfall groups, of which the height of a large waterfall reaches 30 to 50 meters with a width of 50 to 120 meters, a rare phenomenon along major river trunks in the world. The falling gradient of this section reached 23/00, the steepest one in the world. 2. Experts from State Bureau of Serveying and Mapping established three reference spots at the bottom of the Canyon and ranged the maximum depth of the Canyon and the width of the narrowest section of the canyon floor. These data will provide important scientific evidence for announcing the Canyon to be the world largest one in the near future. 3. They have acquired scientific data and samples on biology and earth sciences which will add new contents to the scientific treasury house of the Canyon. Of them, the discovery of notchwing insects and extensive Chinese yew virgin forests are of special importance. 4. The understanding of the impacts of water vapor channel over the Yarlung Zangbo River on the ecological system in Canyon's core section have been improved. 5. The satellite TV transmission has been realized for the first time in the world largest Canyon and nearly thousand hour video pictures and films and nearly thousand excellent pictures were taken.
China's First Priority
Basic Research Projects Started
15 basic research projects meeting major needs of the country and being of far reaching significance to the future economic and social development have been listed inNational Development Plan for Priority Basic Research on December 23, 1998 and ready for their implementation.
Approved by the National S&T Leading Group, the National Development Plan for Priority Basic Research prepared and to be implemented by the Ministry of Science and Technology is an important endeavor to implement the strategy of revitalizing the country with science and education, materialize China's economic, S&T and social development objectives set for 2010 and the middle of next century and meet the challenges of knowledge based economy era.
It is revealed that the central government will invest 25 billion yuan in the said initiatives in five years started from 1998 to support priority basic research activities with unprecedented strength.
The development plan has been tailored to major national demands and selected projects covered two major categories that either meet major economic or social needs or be in the cutting edge of scientific development. The first batch of projects approved for the implementation in 1998 are mainly of the former nature.
As the result of strict examinations by a 19-member expert panel headed by ProfZhou Guangzhao, 15 projects were selected from nation-wide 207 applications. Ofthose selected, there are two projects relating to agriculture such as “Mechanism of Efficient Light Energy Transformation of Photosynthesis and its Applications in Agriculture”, one relating to energy sector such as “Studies of Major Scientific Issues on Disaster Prevention for Power Supply System and Economic Operations”, 3 in the filed of information such as “Application Theory of Information Technology and High Performance Software and 3 for population and health such as “Establishment of Disease Genome Theory and Technique System” and 3 for materials such as“Basic Studies of Functional Rare-Earth Materials”.
To support national priority basic research activities, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Finance have reformed the management of dedicated funds and practice the socalled research topic system with improved budget control and cost calculation so as to make the funding system in line with internationalnorms.
It is briefed that the expert panel will examine applications relating to both major national demands and scientific cutting edges in 1999.
China's Fifth Successful
Launch of Iridium Satellites
At 19:39 (Beijing time) December 19, 1998, Chinese-made improved Long March II-C carrier rocket successfully sent Motorola's two satellites of “Iridium Satellites” system from its Taiyuan based launching pad into designated space orbit.
This is the fifth launch since the improved Long March Ⅱ-C rocket sent two iridium satellites into the space on December 8, 1997. This launch has not only applauded for the complete success of all satellites launched in 1998 but also demonstrated the apparent improvement of China's technology, management and service of commercial satellite launching.
The rocket used for this launch is 40 meters long with a diameter of 3.35 metersand taking off quality of 213 tons. It is on the basis of its previous prototype added with a distributor designed to send satellites from its initial anchor orbit to the terminal circular one at the same time.
The data processed by Xi'an Satellite Measuring and Monitoring Center showed that after 11 minutes since the rocket took off, the second phase rocket was smoothly separated from satellite distributor as scheduled and the distributor carried the satellites into anchoring orbit; after 40 minute taxing,the distributor successfully changed its orbit and released two satellites one after another into the designated orbit (perigee 629.90 km, apogee 646.92 km and dip angle 86.35).
New Member in China's
Rocket Family
Mr. Li Jianzhong, President of Chinese Academy of Carrier Rockets said that China is now striving to develop new rockets and will soon make the debut of two newmembers of the family; Long March I-D and Long March III-C.
Up to date, China's Long March series have altogether 8 members from Long MarchI to Long March II and from Long March III to Long March III-B.
Mr. Li added that to launch the smaller satellites running on lower orbit, the Academy has developed Long March I-D on the basis of Long March I for launching various kinds of smaller satellites under 1000 kg in lower orbits.
The Academy will also produce Long March III-C carrier rocket. The improved rocket will use Long March III rocket as the core phase and be tied up with two boosters on the first phase with remaining structures and sub-systems similar to Long March III-B that is tied up with four boosters. The carrying capacity of Long March III-C is 3700 kg on earth-synchronous transfer orbit and is able to be tailored to users' different orbiting demands and provide more choices for users.
The Academy will also develop improved Long March II tied-up rockets and giant rockets withgreater thrust so as to raise the carrying capacity in the lower orbit to 14-15 tons and the one in the higher orbit to 7 tons. The said new rockets will make their appearance soon in the market.
According to the long-term cooperation agreement between China Great Wall Industry Corp. and US Hughs Company, by 2006 Great Wall Industry will launch ten satellites manufactured by Hughs with its Long March rockets. In addition, as defined by the agreement signed between US based Laural and Great Wall Industry on March 1998, Laural will use Long March III-B to make five launches by March 2000.
CAS's Research Institute
of Mathematics and
System Science Was Founded
To demonstrate the prosperous future of knowledge based innovation activities, Institute of Mathematics and System Sciences subordinated to Chinese Academy of Sciences was established on December 28, 1998. Prof. Yang Le, a renowned mathematician, was designated as the President of the Institute.
Prof. Yang said at a news briefing that CAS created the new entity on the basis of the former four research institutions relating to mathematics. The new instituteis expected to become an important base for mathematics and system studies in the country in a timeframe of 5 to 8 years. It is also to become a research center of international influence for producing high quality mathematics talents, a training base for educating doctorate students, an international academic exchange center and a consultation center on national economy related issues.
The new Institute will practice the system of public bidding for designed posts and contract so as to change the previous dependence relationship between staff and institutions. According to its preliminary plan, by the end of this century,it will have 200 full-time research employees, of whom 80 are entitled research fellows (the previous four institutes had 150 research fellows). The institute will create condition to socialize the welfare on pension and medical care and practice currency subsidy system for housing, welfare and other benefits. It will attract talented mathematicians both at home and abroad to work in the institute as visiting scholar and enhance its capacity of training graduate students. It will increase the number of post doctorate students and make the proportion of mobile and fixed personnel reach 1:1. It will also devote more efforts to building up its library resources so as to make it the best domestic information center on mathematics literature. Its computer network will provide service for calculations of mathematics value and symbols and convenient service for academic exchanges and data retrieval. It is planned to run 4 or 5 quality academic publications.
It is revealed that research budget for the previous four institutions was about 33,000 yuan per person. Thanks to the reform, the new Institution will be expected to make per capita research budget reach 100,000 yuan. Research people working for the Institute may also expect to have more income on the current basis of about 1000 yuan per month through increasing post and achievement subsidies.
S&T Cooperation Agreement
Between China and EU
Agreement for Scientific and Technological Co-operation between China and European Union was signed formally on December 22, 1998 at EU Executive Council Building in Brussels. About 50 people, including Chinese diplomats, the EU and its member states' senior officials, attended the signing ceremony of the agreement.
S&T cooperation between China and EU has recorded a 17-year history during which 230 collaborative projects have been implemented.
The said agreement hallmarked an expansion of the cooperation from scientific and technical cooperation in the traditional cooperation fields such as agriculture, natural resources management and medical sciences into high tech ones including information and telecommunication, life science, material science, aviation and space, marine biology, energy and environment. It also indicates an advanced collaborative pattern from demonstration and diffusion of S&T results into “mutual funding, mutual development and results sharing”, which will in return inject new vitality into the development of ties between China and EU.
Comments or inquiries on editorial matters or Newsletter content should be directed to:Mr. Dong Jianlong, Department of International Cooperation, MOST 15B, Fuxing Road Beijing 100862, PR China Tel: (8610)68512650 Fax: (8610) 68512594, or Mr. Wang Jianping, Editor,NEWSLETTER, 15 Fuxing Road Beijing 100038, PR China, Tel:(8610) 68515544 Ext. 2921
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