2-12-21 Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has instructed Roscosmos, Russia’s state space agency, to complete a Memorandum of Understanding with China confirming cooperation on the creation of an International Scientific Lunar Station, Russian media reported on Friday.
Tianwen-1, China’s first Mars probe, successfully reached the Red Planet on Wednesday at around 7:52 pm, homing in on the Earth’s planetary neighbor after an epic seven-month journey of nearly 500 million kilometers.
After a 15-minute firing of its 3,000-newton thrust engine, the spacecraft reached an elliptical Mars orbit at around 400 kilometers from the planet, according to a statement China’s National Space Administration (CNSA) provided to the Global Times on Wednesday.
Tianwen-1 circuitous flight has seen the spacecraft travel some 475 million kilometers, taking it some 192 million kilometers from Earth, with all systems in good condition, CNSA said. The communication time delay between the probe and Earth is about 10.7 minutes.
It will carry out several orbital course corrections before finally selecting a landing spot and touching down, which is scheduled to happen between May and June.
2-8-21 China’s first homegrown quantum computer operating system was unveiled in Hefei, E.China’s Anhui Province on Monday.
The system, developed by Origin Quantum Computing Technology Co Ltd., will be used on quantum computers – a type of new computers that have been touted as being able to solve complex computational problems much faster than any classic computers.
The new OS has been optimized for the resource management and parallel processing capabilities of quantum computers. It can also calibrate the quantum chips automatically, according to the company.
Currently, only dozens of quantum computers are available in the world. Experts believe if they are not being used effectively, their incredible computing power will be wasted.
China’s Tianwen-1 Mars probe sent back its first image of Mars. It has travelled about 465 million kilometers, reaching more than 184 million kilometers from earth and 1.1 million kilometers from Mars as of 8 pm Friday.
