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Lion land and air autonomous vehicle

Tsinghua University 清华大学 Professor of Vehicle and Carrier Academy, Chinese Academy of Engineering fellow Li Jun’s team successfully developed the first generation of Lion land and air autonomous vehicle. It is the world’s first electric land/air drone with integrated intelligent navigation.

The drone uses a traditional 2-wheel drive chassis for better range on ground navigation, the rotors are used to achieve a higher degree of maneuverability. It features vertical take-off and landing, hovering, 3D navigation, ground cruising, automatic object avoidance and tracking, and other functions.

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A breakthrough for China in deep water gas field exploitation in the South China Sea

A submarine pipeline at a depth of 1,542 meters on the south side of the E3-E2 sections of the Lingshui 17-2 gas field has been successfully completed, marking a breakthrough for China in deep water gas field exploitation in the South China Sea.

The Lingshui 17-2 gas field – the first deep water field established by a Chinese company – is located in the South China Sea near South China’s Hainan Province. 

The operational depth of the field, which is also the China National Offshore Oil Corporation’s (CNOOC’s） first self-operated deep water field, is 1,220-1,560 meters with trillions of cubic meters of exploitable gas reserves.

The field is expected to be operational by the end of China’s 13th Five-Year Plan (2020). It will have an annual gas output of 3-5 billion cubic meters, which could promote the exploitation of deep-water gas resources.

Submarine pipeline is the main artery that transports oil and gas and is regarded as the lifeline of the offshore oil and gas production system. 

Three hundred meters below sea level is considered to be deep water and 1,500 meters is known as ultra deep water. Due to the complex and changeable submarine environment, constructing an ultra deep water submarine pipeline is a challenge, it also has strict requirements on the pipeline’s quality and size.

Prior to the construction of the Lingshui field, ultra deep water submarine pipelines were mostly built by foreign countries.


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China successfully launch the satellites High Res 9-02 and HEAD 4

At 16:53 on 5-31-20, at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre 酒泉卫星发射中心, China successfully put the satellites High Res 高分 9-02 and HEAD 和德 4 into their planned orbits using the Long March II-D 长征二号丁 carrier rocket. High Res 高分 9-02 is an optical remote sensing satellite with a sub-metre resolution, which is mainly used in the fields of land survey, urban planning, land rights, road network design, crop estimation and disaster prevention and mitigation, and can provide information security for the construction of “BRI”, etc. The HEAD 和德 4 satellite, developed by Beijing HEAD Aerospace Technology Co. 和德宇航技术有限公司 ( http://www.head-aerospace.com/#/Home ), can carry out global ship status acquisition, global flight status acquisition and global IoT information acquisition in orbit. This mission was the 333rd flight of the Long March series of launch vehicles.

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People’s Liberation Army Navy first domestically-made aircraft carrier Shandong sea trial

Shandong’s first sea exercises in the northern part of the Yellow Sea since being commissioned late last year in what was a major launch ceremony attended by President Xi. The ongoing trails in an unknown location are being focused on weapons systems testing, including aircraft launch and landing.
“The purpose of this training is to test weapons and equipment efficiency, improve the aircraft carrier’s training capability and further elevate its ability to carry out future missions,” a PLA Navy statement said. Regional media has admitted its sea trial schedule had been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
State media on 5-29-20 https://twitter.com/i/status/1266023926154489856 featured at least seven  J-15 takeoff footage from the deck of the Shandong, hailing the sea trials as a ‘success’:
 “The purpose of this training is to test the performance of weapons and equipment, improve the level of aircraft carrier training, and further enhance the troops’ ability to perform missions and tasks.”
Last December’s commissioning of the new aircraft carrier, China’s second one total and first locally made, was a significant milestone for China as it expands its efforts to become a dominant superpower in the Indo-Pacific region.
Shandong has a displacement of 40,000-60,000 tons with a ski-jump flight deck similar to China’s first carrier, Liaoning, which had originally been purchased from Ukraine and refurbished. Significant improvements in layout design allow the new aircraft carrier to carry 36 J-15 fighter jets, compared to the Liaoning’s 24.

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Beryllium (Beryllium) in China

Rare earth is a general term for the lanthanides and a total of 17 metal elements such as scandium and yttrium in the periodic table, and is a very important resource with high application value. According to statistics, there are a total of 250 rare earth minerals in nature.

In addition to rare earths, a resource more precious than rare earths has been found in our country and that is beryllium. We are familiar with the beryl and cat’s eye stone, is beryllium aluminum silicate evolved under certain natural conditions, and cat’s eye stone is formed under the metal beryllium action.

Beryllium (Beryllium) is a grayish-white alkaline earth metal with the chemical element symbol Be and an atomic number of 4. Beryllium has a much higher hardness than other metals in its family, unlike calcium, strontium, etc., which can be cut by a sharp edge. Beryllium can be soluble in both acid and alkali, and is an amphoteric metal, which is mainly used to prepare alloys, and has the reputation of “super metal”, “cutting-edge metal” and “space metal”.

Nowadays, beryllium, as a new material, is increasingly valued by various industries, and is an indispensable and valuable metal material in atomic energy, rocket, missile, aviation, spaceflight and metallurgy industries. Specifically, beryllium can be used to make X-ray tube windows, can be used as a neutron reducer in atomic reactors, due to its strong heat-absorbing ability and stable mechanical properties is an excellent aviation material. Beryllium is now widely used in the aerospace, space and nuclear fields, and it is no exaggeration to say that it is an irreplaceable and excellent advantage in these fields.

The metal beryllium reserves in the world are very small, previously only the United States and Kazakhstan and other countries can produce nearly 100 tons per year, so the metal beryllium in the global export trade is firmly controlled by the Western countries. Previously, China could only import a small amount of beryllium from Kazakhstan for use, but the situation has finally improved somewhat. China has discovered a very large metal beryllium deposit in the Mongolian Autonomous County of Heksel, Xinjiang, with proven ore reserves of more than 40 million tons, an average grade of 0.1391% and an average thickness of 4.58 meters, which can be said to be the largest beryllium ore in Asia and the world.
According to public data, the top three countries in the world with beryllium reserves are the United States, Kazakhstan and China, and among these three countries, there is still a gap between our proven reserves and the other two countries. But since the discovery of large quantities of beryllium ore, our country has become the world’s largest reserve.

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Chinese laser devices

China has long developed laser devices, but instead of using them to attack drones, it is used to help the power transmission sector to cut down danger trees. Employees of the Southern Power Grid have used a small, portable fourth-generation laser cutter, which uses a new light source and is very easy to operate. With the use of a computer, workers can precisely cut out the tall, sturdy branches away from the transmission tower.

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Volkswagen invests 2 billion euros into China electric vehicle

Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) plans to boost its electric push in Chinaby pumping 2.1 billion euros in two  Chinese electric vehicle players. Volkswagen said it will invest 1 billion euros to take a 50% stake in the state-owned parent of Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group (JAC Motors) (600418.SS), also taking full management control of the its existing electric vehicle joint venture with JAC by raising its stake to 75% from 50%.  The joint venture will launch five more electric models by 2025, when the German giant aims to sell 1.5 million new energy vehicles (NEV) – including battery electric cars as well as plug-in hybrid and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles – a year in China.  China has set a target of 25% of 2025 annual vehicle sales to be made up of NEVs. More than 25 million vehicles were sold in China last year.
Audi China confirmed on 7-14-20, that its parent company Volkswagen AG and its Chinese joint venture partner SAIC Motor plan to invest 4.13 billion yuan ($590 million) to revamp their car plants in Shanghai to make new Audi sedans.

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China’s 15-ton reusable liquid oxygen-methane engine JD-1 completed a key secondary start test

China’s 15-ton reusable liquid oxygen-methane engine JD-1 completed a key secondary start test on Wednesday. 
The completion of the test makes JD-1 the first engine of its kind to achieve a restart function and marks a key breakthrough in vertical landing rocket technology, according to a reply sent by the Beijing-based engine developer i-Space to the Global Times on Thursday.
The vertical landing technology has high technical requirements for the rocket’s power system. A core technology allows for the second start of the engine, the engine’s ability to start and work normally in high altitude after its first normal shutdown.
“The reusable rocket has a high demand on its engine, which has to kick off twice during the take-off and landing processes. The test is of huge significance to the development of reusable rockets,” 
“It is likely China will be the second country to acquire reusable launch technology after the US,” 
The engine is powered with liquid oxygen-methane, a low-cost and clean fuel, and is designed to be used up to 30 times, which can save more than 70 percent in rocket manufacturing costs, according to the developer.
The engine will be assembled onboard the reusable liquid oxygen-methane carrier rocket Hyperbola-2, said a power system engineer with i-Space, noting that the test laid a solid foundation for the launch of the rocket.
The rocket, with a take-off weight of 90 tons, is capable of sending 1.9-ton payloads into low-Earth orbit and is expected to be launched for the first time in 2021.
The next technological breakthrough will be in precise guidance and control technology, and the selection and planning of landing sites.

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China making good progress in building world’s largest supercollider

Research and development for the first batch of key equipment for the world’s most powerful electron collider, the Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC), in China, has made solid progress. Wang Yifang, director of the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP), under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, who is also a deputy to the National People’s Congress, made the comments. The overall development of the CEPC project is moving forward smoothly, with some of the first batch of equipment reaching design standards.

Klystron is among the first batch of key equipment for the super-sized collider, which scored a 60 percent efficiency in the prototype test earlier this year, reaching world advanced levels, up from below 50 percent, according to Wang. Wang’s team aims to produce an even better version of the klystron with 80 percent efficiency this year. The location for the CEPC has yet to be determined, Wang noted.

The CEPC project will reportedly cost 35 billion yuan ($5.05 billion) and will have a circumference of 100 kilometers, with center-mass energy of up to 240 giga electron-volts, both setting a world record. Chinese scientists are eyeing the completion for CEPC construction by 2030.

The conceptual design for the CEPC passed international inspections in September 2019. Scientists from the US, Europe and Japan have participated in designing the project, and will work on the building process and conduct research with the collider.

The Large Hadron Collider, the Swiss project near Geneva, is currently the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider and reportedly the largest machine in the world. In a bid to maximize the project’s service life, scientists are mulling upgrading the electron positron collider in around 2040 into a proton collider, Wang noted. By then, the center-mass energy for the CEPC will have reached about 100 tera electron-volts, seven times as powerful as the Switzerland’s project, Wang said.

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has brought risks of suspension and delay in implementing procurement contracts for some equipment for large-scale projects due to adjustments in budgeting plans. Wang suggested that legal entities engaged in major project construction should be allowed to raise funds through multiple channels or borrow other funds to ensure that construction tasks are completed on schedule.

Wang revealed that another IHEP project, the cosmic ray observation station on an area equivalent to 200 soccer fields in the wilderness of Daocheng, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, 4,400 meters above sea level, has been affected by budget cuts.