CHINA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
NEWSLETTER
The Ministry of Science and Technology
People's Republic of China
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N0.636 |
November 10, 2011 |
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IN THIS ISSUE
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* China-Germany Electric Vehicle Seminar
*China-Italy High-Level Innovation Forum
*China-Ethiopia Signed S&T Cooperation Accord
* Shenzhou VIII Docked with Target Spacecraft
*Enhanced Wide-Area Real-Time Precise Positioning
* Nuclear Safety Simulator
* Nervonic Acid Rich Microalgae Found
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INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION |
China-Germany Electric Vehicle Seminar
A China-Germany electric vehicle innovation seminar was held on October 24, 2011 in Beijing. WAN Gang, CPPCC Vice Chairman and Chinese Minister of Science and Technology spoke at the event. Some 100 government and research community representatives from China and Germany attended the meeting.
WAN spoke about the latest development of electric vehicles in China, and major efforts initiated to implement the Joint Statement issued by the Prime Ministers of both countries, and proposed specific points for joint researches and interactive demonstrations. WAN said the development of electric vehicles creates a global opportunity for dealing with climate change and energy crisis, and rendering good services to the development of electric cars makes a global obligation. He wishes the two countries to seek for the common development of electric car industry under the momentum of innovation, openness, and collaboration.
Project leaders reported the detailed cooperation plan at the meeting. Business representatives from the two countries made an in-depth discussion of the mode and content of the collaboration. During the meeting, government representatives from Dalian City and Bremen State jointly undersigned a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of electric vehicles.
China-Italy High-Level Innovation Forum
The 2nd China-Italy High-Level Innovation Forum and the 1st China-Italy Innovation Steering Committee meeting was held on October 31, 2011 in Nanjing. WAN Gang, CPPCC Vice Chairman, and Chinese Minister of Science and Technology, and Renato Brunetta, Italian Minister for Public Administration and Innovation made their respective speech at the opening ceremony. Some 500 representatives from more than 170 Chinese and Italian innovative companies attended the meeting.
At the opening ceremony, WAN briefed the audiences of China's innovation policies and major efforts staged in implementing the China-Italy three-year action plan for strengthening economic cooperation, and proposed a range of specific points for the development of China-Italy technology transfer center, design innovation center, and e-government center, the interface of science and technology parks, and major research collaborations. Brunetta said the two countries have a broad prospective for cooperation in the area of innovation, and that Italy pays full attention to collaborations with China, bringing innovation and technology to China, in a bid to achieve common development with China. At the meeting, a framework agreement on establishing a China-Italy e-government center was jointly inked by MOST Department of International Cooperation, CAS Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Italian Ministry of Public Administration and Innovation Department of Innovation and Digitization, Italian Innovation Agency, and Turin Polytechnic University, in an effort to provide a framework support for the new center.
After the opening ceremony, WAN and Brunetta co-chaired the first meeting of China-Italy Steering Committee for Innovation. The two sides reviewed the progresses achieved in the course of building a China-Italy innovation cooperation platform, and spoke highly of the new S&T partnership established between the two countries. The two sides also discussed the perspectives of staging pragmatic collaborations and associated measures.
China-Ethiopia Signed S&T Cooperation Accord
ZHANG Laiwu, Chinese Vice-Minister of Science and Technology, and Mohamoud Ahmed Gaas, Ethiopian State Minister of Science and Technology jointly inked on October 28, 2011 an intergovernmental S&T cooperation accord in Addis Ababa.
At the signing ceremony, the two sides reached consensus on the important role played by science and technology in facilitating a nation’s sustainable development, and the necessity of strengthening scientific and technological cooperation between the two countries, especially in the area of high and application technologies, in a bid to promote the common development and respond to the common challenges posed by globalization. ZHANG said China is willing to share with Ethiopia the experience and practice that China has gathered in its science and technology development, helping Ethiopia to enhance the capacity building of science and technology. Gaas said that the agreement makes a new milestone in the relationship between the two countries, and the inter-governmental science and technology cooperation mechanism established between the two countries agreed with the mutual interests and cooperation needs, which is particularly important for Ethiopia to achieve the goals of economic growth and industrial restructuring.
New Shenzhou Spacecraft Launched
At 05:58:07 November 1, 2011, China blasted off a new Shenzhou spacecraft aboard a CZ-IIF launch vehicle, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The spacecraft has entered the preset orbit, making the launch a complete success.
The newly launched spacecraft is the eighth of its kind in the Shenzhou series, designed to accomplish the following missions: docking with Tiangong-I, a Chinese made target spacecraft, testing the automated docking technology developed by Chinese scientists; testing the functionality and performance of enhanced Shenzhou spacecraft and CZ-IIF carrier rocket, and the coordination between different subsystems; and testing the combination mode, and working on space experiments. Shenzhou-VIII spacecraft made an unmanned flight mission.
The docking process is phased for long distance guide, self-control, docking, combination flight, and separation/departure. The long distance guide started when the spacecraft entered orbit, allowing the spacecraft to transfer orbit from the initial orbit to the near circular orbit 330 km away from the earth, shared by Tiangong-I target spacecraft, under the steering of the ground control system. The process allowed the spacecraft to establish a reliable communication link with the target spacecraft some 52 kilometers below it, where the Shenzhou spacecraft started to navigate on its own.
The two-and-half-hour self-control phase is designed for the spacecraft to look for, approach, and get closer to the target spacecraft. The docking mission was completed in 15 minutes after capture, buffering, close-in, and locking. The two phases helped the two spacecraft get connected physically to form a combination.
The target spacecraft takes care of the combination flight, allowing Shenzhou VIII to take a rest. The combination flight will last for 12 days, before embarking on a second try of docking, where the docking mechanism will be unlocked to separate the two aircraft. Shenzhou VIII spacecraft will be anchored some 140 meters away the target spacecraft, waiting to be docked again to make a combination.
The combination will continue to roam for two days, before entering the separation and departure phase, where the two spacecraft will be separated from one another once again, and Shenzhou VIII will be instructed to stay at a safe distance 5 km away from the target spacecraft, marking the end of the docking experiment. After that, Shenzhou VIII spacecraft will return to the earth, and the target aircraft will be back to its own orbit under the long-term operation management.
Shenzhou VIII has docked with the target aircraft two days after entering orbit. It is currently sitting in a place some 10,000km away from the target spacecraft.
Shenzhou VIII Docked with Target Spacecraft
Shenzhou VIII made its first successful docking with Tiangong-I, a Chinese made target spacecraft at 01:36 November 3, 2011. It took 8 minutes for Shenzhou VIII to touch and lock the target spacecraft. The docking process is phased for long distance guide, self-control, and docking. The docking itself is completed in five steps: contact, capture, buffering and correction, bulling back, and locking. According to MA Yongping, Beijing Aerospace Control Center Deputy Director, after the docking mechanism was locked, Tiangong-I’s attitude was realigned to establish a combination flight mode for a range of experiments. A second docking experiment will be staged to further test the reliability of the self-guided docking mechanism on the 12th day of the combination flight.
Enhanced Wide-Area Real-Time Precise Positioning
Wide-area real-time precise positioning technology and associated demonstration is a major project initiated under the National 863 Program in the area of earth observation and navigation technology for the 11th five-year period (2006-2010). The project is designed to establish an enhanced high-precision satellite navigation demonstration system enjoying advanced real-time data processing, internet, and satellite communication capabilities, based on wide-area differential and precise point positioning technology, and on the existing satellite navigation ground stations in the country. Not long ago, the project team has completed a range of tests in 10 geographic locations, including Beijing, Wuhan, Qingdao, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Kunming, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Xi'an and Kuerle. Test results show that the enhanced satellite navigation demonstration system that has covered most part of the country reached a real-time positioning accuracy better than 1 meter, with a real-time navigation satellite orbit determination accuracy at 0.1 meter, and a real-time clock error at 0.2 nanosecond. The system’s main technical indicators have reached an internationally advanced level. The development marks China's major breakthroughs in mastering the wide-area real-time precise positioning technology.
During the 11th five-year period, the project team has developed a range of key technologies to building the new demonstration system, including data acquisition, data processing, precise positioning data broadcast, receiving terminals, and associated operation and services. The results derived from the project can be directly applied to build an enhanced Compass satellite navigation system in the future, raising the positioning accuracy of the Compass system.
Nuclear Safety Simulator
A nuclear safety supervision project was recently kicked off at the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Center, part of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, to build a Full Scope Simulator, based on a range of pre-phase efforts, including feasibility study, approval, and bidding, that had been completed in the past two years. As the first project staged for the national nuclear safety supervision, the simulator will be developed by China Nuclear Power Simulation Corporation under China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group.
The system is a platform designed to simulate a range of nuclear safety operations, including normal operation, design benchmark accident, and beyond benchmark accident (serious accident) for the advanced second-generation pressurized water reactor models that are dominating the existing Chinese nuclear power plants. The simulator is able to handle nuclear accidents in line with the operations on the ground. It not only works on most of the functionalities simulated by a regular nuclear power plant, but also possesses special capabilities for safety review and check.
Comparing with the Full Scope Simulators in operation in a few developed countries, the one developed by China will reach an internationally advanced level in overall technical level, simulation precision, and simulation range, thanks to the application of a range of advanced modules, including simulation support, reactor thermal-hydraulic calculation, and serious accident analysis.
Experts said that the Full Scope Simulator will fill up the nuclear safety voids that may threaten the safe operation of Chinese nuclear power plants, greatly enhancing the technical capability of nuclear safety review, desirable for raising the reliability of Chinese nuclear power plant and associated nuclear safety supervision.
National nuclear safety regulatory authorities will develop the Full Scope Simulators tailored to other nuclear reactor models, based on the successful implementation of the project, in a bid to establish a Full Scope Simulator network that covers all the nuclear power reactor models in the country.
Nervonic Acid Rich Microalgae Found
Not long ago, a study team, led by LI Fuli, a research fellow at CAS Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess, harvested a microalgae named Mychonastes afer HSO-3 from natural microbial resources. Having a fat content exceeding 57% and a nervonic acid hitting the level 6% as a proportion of the total neutral fat, the new microalgae species is the first of its kind found in the world rich in nervonic acid.
The finding is important for the growth and development of nervonic acid industry. In addition, the microalgae is high in oil content, enjoying a fast growth and strong adversity resistance. LI and his team have applied for a patent for the finding. Now the team is working on the microalgae’s growth characteristics in the lab, and established a technical roadmap for a 500L scale laboratory plate culture and nervonic acid extraction.
Previous pharmaceutical studies show that nervonic acid is a key factor in repairing the damaged nerve fibers, able to restore the activity of nerve endings and promote the growth and development of nerve cells. Additionally, it has a proven therapeutic effect on cardiovascular and immune deficiency diseases. Nervonic acid enjoys a broad market prospective for its unique medical value. In recent years, natural nervonic acid resources have become a scarce resource along with the promulgation of a range of laws and regulations for limiting the use of animal products.
New Remote Sensing Satellite Launched
At 11:21, November 9, 2011, China successfully blasted off a new remote sensing satellite aboard a CZ-IVB launch vehicle, from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. A "Tianxun-I" satellite was also launched aboard the same launch vehicle. The new remote sensing satellite will be employed to collect the data for scientific experiments, land resource surveys, crop yield assessment, and disaster prevention/reduction. "Tianxun-I" satellite, developed by the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, is designed to work on technical experiments and tests.
New Antarctic Expedition
"Snow Dragon" research vessel aboard with 220 China’s 28th Antarctic Expedition Team members departed on November 3, 2011. According to a work plan endorsed by the China State Oceanic Administration for the new Antarctic expedition, the research vessel will take care of the expedition missions and logistic supplies of three Chinese stations in the Antarctica from 2011 to 2012.
The new expedition will focus on a range of new missions, including deep ice core drilling, building an Antarctic observatory, and deep ice and subglacial environment exploration among others, in a bid to explore the causes of climate change and probe outer space. Two team members from Taiwan will work on marine life specimen collection and associated surveys.
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Department of International Cooperation, MOST 15B, Fuxing Road， Beijing 100862, PR China Tel: (8610)58881360 Fax: (8610) 58881364
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