<IT WORLD> China steps into the void
By Martin J Young
HUA HIN, Thailand - China extended its space ambitions this week with the
launch of its third manned mission. The Long-March II-F rocket was launched
from the Jiuquan spaceport in Gansu province on Thursday. The flight will last
for approximately 70 hours and include China's first spacewalk, which is set to
take place on Saturday. The Shenzhou-VII capsule is currently orbiting Earth at
a height of 300 kilometers, where astronaut Zhai Zhigang will conduct
extra-vehicular activity to oversee the release of a satellite.
China became the third nation after the United States and Russia to
independently put a man in space when Yang Liwei went into orbit on the
Shenzhou V mission in October 2003. The nation also launched a lunar probe,
Chang'e-1, last year to orbit the moon and gather data.
Chinese media stated that this is a critical step in the country's
three-step program, which consists of sending a human into orbit, docking
spacecraft together to form a small laboratory and finally building a large
space station. The Shenzhou VIII and IX missions planned for 2010 will start
the development of China's space laboratory. Its long term goals include
landing on the moon.
Not all is going according to plan. Chinese state media Xinhua ran a story on
the spacewalk, including quotes from the astronauts as if they were in space,
on Thursday before the launch had taken place. Xinhua has since pulled the
gaffe from its website.
India also has its lunar ambitions in full swing, with plans to launch a flight
next month. The Chandrayaan probe has a two-year mission, during which it will
orbit the moon and digitally map the lunar surface and scan for minerals such
as thorium and uranium.
These latest Asian space efforts may seem a little retro to those that have
already "been there and done that", but nearly 40 years after the first
successful lunar Apollo mission the prospect of another moon landing is
exciting for those that have not witnessed such a feat.
If China and Russia continue to work together on space-related projects it is
only a matter of time before the US and Europe start to up the ante with their
own ongoing efforts. There are already a number of unmanned craft exploring the
surface of Mars and orbiting the moons of Jupiter and Saturn gathering data.
The search is primarily for signs of the presence of water which would be the
fundamental life support platform in the solar system.
Science
After all the hype and premature celebrations the boffins in on the
French-Swiss border at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research),
trying to get the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) up and running, finally got a big
bang last week - though not quite the kind they were expecting. According to
the Geneva-based research center's website a faulty electrical connection
between two magnets, which probably melted at high current, caused a mechanical
failure resulting in a large helium leakage into the tunnel.
The initial downtime of the LHC was estimated at two months but CERN officials
have since stated that the proton collider will not be operational again until
April. The repair to the super-conducting magnets will involve bringing them up
to room temperature from their current liquid helium-cooled state of -450
degrees Fahrenheit (minus 267.7 degrees Celsius), a process that will take
three to four weeks. The reversal is the same for the cooling process, which is
where the original downtime of two months came from.
The winter period has been reserved for "obligatory maintenance", so the US$10
billion machine will be shut down until next spring. CERN director General
Robert Aymar made a formal statement declaring that the incident had been a
"psychological blow" but the scientists were optimistic following the initial
tests and will persevere until they can fire up the 27 kilometer underground
atomic race track again in seven or eight months.
Across
the pond in the US, researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) have released findings this week indicating that solar
wind is at its lowest recorded level in 50 years. Measurements from the Ulysses
spacecraft show the steady stream of sub-atomic particles that is constantly
emitted by the sun at around a million miles per hour has dwindled to its
weakest level since the space race began and these types of measurements were
made possible.
Solar winds create a protective envelope, called a heliosphere, around our
planet, shielding it against potentially harmful galactic cosmic radiation.
Measurements show that the wind's pressure has dropped 20% since the mid-1990s,
which means that more radiation may be able to get through. Researchers insist
that this currently poses no harm to Earth's inhabitants so there is no need to
go out and buy that SPF 5,000 sun block cream just yet.
The sun goes through its own weather activity cycles, which last about 11 years
- each cycle has a quiet period, as we are now currently experiencing, and a
peak period of activity when sunspots, solar flares and solar wind are
heightened. The latest readings show activity lower than previous solar
minimums so the time to get ready with that sun block could be when the solar
cycle peaks in about five years time.
Telecoms
US mobile-phone carrier T-Mobile gave the world its first official glimpse of
the smartphones to be powered by Google's Android software in New York this
week. The units, made by Taiwan-based HTC, are called the G1 and bear
considerable resemblance to Apple's iPhone. The hand-held device offers a
slide-out keypad and touch screen alongside all the usual Google-friendly
functions including maps, email, photos and music.
Naturally it won't interface with Apple's iTunes, instead offering its own
music downloading service from Amazon's music store. The difference in the
platform is that independent programmers can design and write new applications
for the Android, whereas Apple keeps all of its software products under tight
lock and key. The smartphone is expected to weigh in at a snip under the
iPhone, around $179 to $199, when it hits the shelves next month.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
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Science
