China launches space environmental research center

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, November 10, 2003

China launches space environmental research center

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The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) unveiled Monday a space environmental research center, aiming at providing space environmental data and analyses for China's manned space program and other outer space activities.

Wu Ji, a leading scientist with the CAS Center for Space Environmental Research and Forecast, said the primary mission of the new institute is to "dish out detailed data and effective analyses" which are vital to key national space programs.

Man-made space objects are heavily affected by space weather and environmental conditions, and experts say space environmental research must be carried out in tandem with outer space exploration.

The center, a loosely-woven body with connection to the CAS Center for Space Science and Applied Research, the National Observatory, the CAS Institute of Physics and Mathematics in Wuhan, the CAS Institute of Geology and Geophysics, the Chinese University of Science and Technology and the CAS Institute of Atmospheric Physics, has the participation of excellent Chinese scientists in the field.

Wu said one important mandate of his center is to oversee land-based and space-based space monitoring equipment owned by the CAS, China's top science think tank. All the equipment and related databases could be used for ongoing and future state space programs.

In coming years, Wu said, scientists are required to describe and forecast the space environment, analyze space environmental effects and conduct studies for military use.

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