3 d. ago Chinese risk study finds space solar power stations could accidentally zap satellites

As China pushes to take the global lead in building space-based solar power stations, a new study warns that powerful lasers beaming energy back to Earth could pose serious risks to other satellites in the increasingly crowded low-Earth orbit. If these beams miss their targets – because of tracking errors or system malfunctions – they could strike nearby spacecraft, overheat solar panels or trigger electrical discharges, according to a team from the Beijing Institute of Satellite Environment...

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3 d. ago Chinese risk study finds space solar power stations could zap satellites

Chinese risk study finds space solar power stations could zap satellites  South China Morning Post

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5 d. ago Chinese astronauts conduct key training, experiments on space station

Chinese astronauts conduct key training, experiments on space station  China Daily

Technology

8 d. ago Why Chinese space station is studying how gravity affects battery performance

Led by only the second civilian the country has sent into space, China had started a series of experiments on board its Tiangong space station that could lead to the development of safer and more powerful space batteries, state media reported on Wednesday. The tests on lithium-ion batteries run by Zhang Hongzhang, a professor at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, could help scientists better understand how gravity affects the workings of the batteries. Zhang, 39, is one of the three...

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9 d. ago 5 student unions at Chinese University of Hong Kong disband within a year

Five student unions among nine colleges at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) have been dissolved in the space of a year, with their leaders attributing the closures to the institution’s requirement that they register as legal societies with police. The student union of Lee Woo Sing College on Wednesday became the latest group at CUHK to announce that it would cease operations. In a social media post, the union said its committee “originally planned to head to the police headquarters to...

Culture

2 w. ago China warns satellites from Elon Musk’s Starlink are ‘safety and security’ risk

China has warned that the rapid expansion of internet satellite constellations such as SpaceX’s Starlink presented “pronounced safety and security challenges”. Beijing’s representative cited several incidents – including near collisions between Starlink satellites and the Chinese space station in 2021, and a satellite that disintegrated in December – while speaking at an informal United Nations Security Council event initiated by Russia on Monday. They also pointed to the disregard of countries’...

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3 w. ago Beijing extends Mars mission lead; stranded astronauts back home: China’s year in space

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China space stories of the year. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Stranded Chinese astronauts return home from space station mission Three astronauts whose return to Earth from China’s Tiangong space station was delayed after a suspected debris strike touched down on November 14 at the Dongfeng landing site in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. 2. China’s Shenzhou 20 debris crisis: a catalyst for space war – or...

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