For now of course. Because loss of income is at threat to limit transportation. Emission standards in China are nowhere near those of Europe because of barriers of entry and loss of income if enforced. I think Chinese leaders are looking towards next gen of car engine (battery) to ease the pollution. This is why they have the 2025 aim (or is it already law) that all vehicles in metro areas should/must be battery. I think this reveals they are confident in domestic battery cars by 2020 at least. BYD is already one of the manufacturing leaders in these areas. I bet in 10 years time we'll see many others and perhaps even innovation beyond those that exist in the West.
News on China's scientific and technological development.
- Thread starter Quickie
- Start date
For now of course. Because loss of income is at threat to limit transportation. Emission standards in China are nowhere near those of Europe because of barriers of entry and loss of income if enforced. I think Chinese leaders are looking towards next gen of car engine (battery) to ease the pollution. This is why they have the 2025 aim (or is it already law) that all vehicles in metro areas should/must be battery. I think this reveals they are confident in domestic battery cars by 2020 at least. BYD is already one of the manufacturing leaders in these areas. I bet in 10 years time we'll see many others and perhaps even innovation beyond those that exist in the West.
Jura The idiot
General
antiterror13
Brigadier
well, 32 years later ... not 22 ...
Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Those stealthy plane has very short shelve life soon they will be detected. Recent advance in Ghost imaging technology
China is developing a new type of spy satellite using ghost imaging technology that could change the game of military cat and mouse within a decade, according to scientists involved in the project.
Existing camouflage techniques – from simple smoke bombs used to hide tanks or soldiers on battlefields to the hi-tech radar absorption materials on a stealth aircraft or warship – would be of no use against ghost imaging, physics experts said.
Quantum ghost imaging can achieve unprecedented sensitivity by detecting not just the extremely small amount of light straying off a dim target, but also its interactions with other light in the surrounding environment to obtain more information than traditional methods.
A satellite equipped with the new quantum sensor would be able to identify and track targets that are currently invisible from space, such as stealth bombers taking off at night, according to researchers.
The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit operated by the United States is the world’s only stealth bomber in service able to deliver a strategic strike on an enemy.
B-2s take flight mostly under the cover of night, in part to avoid high-definition optical cameras on spy satellites. They have a special coating to deflect or absorb microwaves of certain bandwidths produced by space-based synthetic aperture radars, as well as heat-suppression technology to dodge infrared sensors. Its successor, the B-21, is under development with improved but similar technologies. It is expected to enter service by 2025.
Gong Wenlin, research director at the Key Laboratory for Quantum Optics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai – whose team is building the prototype ghost imaging device for satellite missions – said their technology was designed to catch “invisibles” like the B-2s.
He said his lab, led by prominent quantum optics physicist Han Shensheng, would complete a prototype by 2020 with an aim to test the technology in space before 2025. By 2030 he said there would be some large-scale applications.
While ghost imaging has already been tested on ground-based systems, Gong’s lab is in a race with overseas competitors, including the US Army Research Laboratory, to launch the world’s first ghost imaging satellite.
The team showed the engineering feasibility of the technology with a ground experiment in 2011. Three years later the US army lab announced similar results.
“We have beat them on the ground. We have confidence to beat them again in space,” Gong said.
The ghost imaging satellite would have two cameras, one aiming at the targeted area of interest with a bucket-like, single pixel sensor while the other camera measured variations in a wider field of light across the environment.
The target could be illuminated by almost any light source such as the sun, moon or even a fluorescent light bulb. Alternatively, a pair of physically “entangled” or “correlated” laser beams could be generated from the satellite to light up the object and its surroundings.
By analysing and merging the signals received by the two cameras with a set of sophisticated algorithms in quantum physics, scientists could conjure up the imaging of an object with extremely high definition previously thought impossible using conventional methods.
Gong said darkness, cloud, haze and other negative elements impairing visibility would no longer matter.
“A ghost imaging satellite will reveal more details than the most advanced radar satellite,” the research director said.
Because quantum imaging can collect data from a wide spectrum of light, the images they produce would look “more natural” to human eyes than the black-and-white radar images based on the echo of high-frequency electromagnetic waves of narrow bandwidths, he said.
The ghost camera could also identify the physical nature or even chemical composition of a target, according to Gong. This meant the military would be able to distinguish decoys such as fake fighter jets on display in an airfield or missile launchers hidden under a camouflage canopy.
Tang Lingli, a researcher with the Academy of Opto-Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, said numerous new devices had been built, tested in the field and were ready for deployment on ground-based radar stations, planes and airships.
“Satellite is the next step,” she said.
Tang said ghost imaging could be achieved using different methods in either quantum or classical physics, and it would work best with other intelligence gathering methods including optical cameras and synthesised aperture radars.
“Each detection method has its unique advantages. It depends on the circumstances and nature of the mission as to which one should be used, if not all [of them],” said Tang, who is also the general secretary of the National Committee on Remote Sensing Technology Standardisation and a supervisor of the national ghost imaging project.
Xiong Jun, a professor of physics who studied quantum optics at Beijing Normal University, said ghost imaging could become a game changer for military operations.
Some 200 quantum optics scientists gather in China every year to share their new discoveries and the latest advances in engineering applications.
Xiong said he had seen ghost imaging used in ground-based radar systems and spy planes, but the satellite project had not been publicly discussed because of its sensitivity.
Many engineering challenges would have to be overcome to build such a satellite, he said.
If the satellite used a natural light source such as the sun and moon, it would need to have extremely fast sensors to detect the tiny changes in light down to a few nanoseconds – or one thousand-millionths of a second – and catch the quantum physics in action.
If it used an artificial light source such as a laser, it would need to be very powerful to reach a distant target near the ground.
But Xiong noted that China had built and run the world’s first and only quantum satellite, which provided a large amount of experimental data – and engineering experience – for its scientists.
He said that satellite could generate a pair of entangled laser pulses and send them to different locations on the ground, and the ghost imaging satellite would use similar techniques.
“The theory of ghost imaging has been well established and understood,” Xiong said. “The speed of application very much depends on the government and the amount of money it’s willing to spend.”
China is developing a new type of spy satellite using ghost imaging technology that could change the game of military cat and mouse within a decade, according to scientists involved in the project.
Existing camouflage techniques – from simple smoke bombs used to hide tanks or soldiers on battlefields to the hi-tech radar absorption materials on a stealth aircraft or warship – would be of no use against ghost imaging, physics experts said.
Quantum ghost imaging can achieve unprecedented sensitivity by detecting not just the extremely small amount of light straying off a dim target, but also its interactions with other light in the surrounding environment to obtain more information than traditional methods.
A satellite equipped with the new quantum sensor would be able to identify and track targets that are currently invisible from space, such as stealth bombers taking off at night, according to researchers.
The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit operated by the United States is the world’s only stealth bomber in service able to deliver a strategic strike on an enemy.
B-2s take flight mostly under the cover of night, in part to avoid high-definition optical cameras on spy satellites. They have a special coating to deflect or absorb microwaves of certain bandwidths produced by space-based synthetic aperture radars, as well as heat-suppression technology to dodge infrared sensors. Its successor, the B-21, is under development with improved but similar technologies. It is expected to enter service by 2025.
Gong Wenlin, research director at the Key Laboratory for Quantum Optics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai – whose team is building the prototype ghost imaging device for satellite missions – said their technology was designed to catch “invisibles” like the B-2s.
He said his lab, led by prominent quantum optics physicist Han Shensheng, would complete a prototype by 2020 with an aim to test the technology in space before 2025. By 2030 he said there would be some large-scale applications.
While ghost imaging has already been tested on ground-based systems, Gong’s lab is in a race with overseas competitors, including the US Army Research Laboratory, to launch the world’s first ghost imaging satellite.
The team showed the engineering feasibility of the technology with a ground experiment in 2011. Three years later the US army lab announced similar results.
“We have beat them on the ground. We have confidence to beat them again in space,” Gong said.
The ghost imaging satellite would have two cameras, one aiming at the targeted area of interest with a bucket-like, single pixel sensor while the other camera measured variations in a wider field of light across the environment.
The target could be illuminated by almost any light source such as the sun, moon or even a fluorescent light bulb. Alternatively, a pair of physically “entangled” or “correlated” laser beams could be generated from the satellite to light up the object and its surroundings.
By analysing and merging the signals received by the two cameras with a set of sophisticated algorithms in quantum physics, scientists could conjure up the imaging of an object with extremely high definition previously thought impossible using conventional methods.
Gong said darkness, cloud, haze and other negative elements impairing visibility would no longer matter.
“A ghost imaging satellite will reveal more details than the most advanced radar satellite,” the research director said.
Because quantum imaging can collect data from a wide spectrum of light, the images they produce would look “more natural” to human eyes than the black-and-white radar images based on the echo of high-frequency electromagnetic waves of narrow bandwidths, he said.
The ghost camera could also identify the physical nature or even chemical composition of a target, according to Gong. This meant the military would be able to distinguish decoys such as fake fighter jets on display in an airfield or missile launchers hidden under a camouflage canopy.
Tang Lingli, a researcher with the Academy of Opto-Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, said numerous new devices had been built, tested in the field and were ready for deployment on ground-based radar stations, planes and airships.
“Satellite is the next step,” she said.
Tang said ghost imaging could be achieved using different methods in either quantum or classical physics, and it would work best with other intelligence gathering methods including optical cameras and synthesised aperture radars.
“Each detection method has its unique advantages. It depends on the circumstances and nature of the mission as to which one should be used, if not all [of them],” said Tang, who is also the general secretary of the National Committee on Remote Sensing Technology Standardisation and a supervisor of the national ghost imaging project.
Xiong Jun, a professor of physics who studied quantum optics at Beijing Normal University, said ghost imaging could become a game changer for military operations.
Some 200 quantum optics scientists gather in China every year to share their new discoveries and the latest advances in engineering applications.
Xiong said he had seen ghost imaging used in ground-based radar systems and spy planes, but the satellite project had not been publicly discussed because of its sensitivity.
Many engineering challenges would have to be overcome to build such a satellite, he said.
If the satellite used a natural light source such as the sun and moon, it would need to have extremely fast sensors to detect the tiny changes in light down to a few nanoseconds – or one thousand-millionths of a second – and catch the quantum physics in action.
If it used an artificial light source such as a laser, it would need to be very powerful to reach a distant target near the ground.
But Xiong noted that China had built and run the world’s first and only quantum satellite, which provided a large amount of experimental data – and engineering experience – for its scientists.
He said that satellite could generate a pair of entangled laser pulses and send them to different locations on the ground, and the ghost imaging satellite would use similar techniques.
“The theory of ghost imaging has been well established and understood,” Xiong said. “The speed of application very much depends on the government and the amount of money it’s willing to spend.”
Jura The idiot
General
Jura The idiot
General
now found what The War Zone had to say November 29, 2017 which is
China Says It's Building a "Ghost Imaging" Satellite to Detect Stealth Jets
Jura The idiot
General
Thursday at 8:16 AM
Chinese satellite detects mysterious signals in search for dark matter
Xinhua| 2017-11-30 02:16:03
and now I read a related article
Chinese satellite detects mysterious signals in search for dark matter
Xinhua| 2017-11-30 02:16:03
PiSigma
"the engineer"
I like the name wukong. It doesn't mean monkey king. Monkey king just happen to have that name. It means to comprehend emptiness, so fits this satellite perfectly.
Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
From SCMP. After 5 decades they resurrect an old technology concept and see if improvement in material can make it work
China is to spend 22 billion yuan (US$3.3 billion) trying to perfect a form of technology largely discarded in the cold war which could produce a safer but more powerful form of nuclear energy.
The cash is to develop two “molten salt” reactors in the Gobi Desert in northern China.
Researchers hope that if they can solve a number of technical problems the reactors will lead to a range of applications, including nuclear-powered warships and drones.
The technology, in theory, can create more heat and power than existing forms of nuclear reactors that use uranium, while producing only one thousandth of the radioactive waste.
It also has the advantage for China of using thorium as its main fuel. China has some of the world’s largest reserves of the metal.
China is not alone in trying to revive the technology because of the potential benefits. Companies in the United States are working in the field, while Japan, Russia and France have all expressed renewed interest in the technology.
The Chinese project has been funded by the central government and the two reactors are to be built at Wuwei in Gansu province, according to a statement on the website of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The lead scientist on the project is Jiang Mianheng – the son of the former Chinese president Jiang Zemin – and it is hoped the reactors will be up and running by 2020.
The US air force built a 2.5-megawatt molten salt reactor in the 1950s as part of a programme to develop nuclear-powered aircraft engines.
The reactors use molten salt rather than water as a coolant, allowing them to create temperatures of over 800 degrees Celsius, nearly three times the heat produced by a commercial nuclear plant fuelled with uranium. The superhot air had the potential to drive turbines and jet engines and in theory keep a bomber flying at supersonic speed for days.
The US project was shelved in the 1970s. Problems were encountered trying to reduce the size and weight of the reactor, and there were public concerns over the safety of the technology when placed in an aircraft.
Another problem was the erosion to pipes and the reactor chamber caused by the hot salt used in the fission process.
Yan Long, a researcher involved in the Chinese project at the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, said the Gansu facility might eventually help China develop a thorium-powered warship or aircraft.
He said it was now possible to build a very small molten salt reactor and that after years of research and government funding, scientists had developed special alloy and coating materials to prevent chemical corrosion.
The reactors in Gansu were designed to demonstrate the feasibility of the technology, he said.
The research facility in Gansu will be built by a lake with high salt levels, according to the project blueprints.
Both reactors will be underground and the heat they generate will reach 12 megawatts. The heat will be channelled to a power generation plant, several factories and a desalination plant by the lake to produce electricity, hydrogen, industrial chemicals, drinking water and minerals.
After the experiment, China may move on to commercial or military use of the technology on a larger scale, Yan said.
“We are now developing new materials for warships. The materials must come with relatively low cost for mass production and they must be compact and light, otherwise the reactor won’t fit in a ship,” he said.
Chen Fu, a thermal physicist at the Harbin Institute of Technology involved in the development of new power generation systems for China’s navy, said the heat generated by a thorium molten salt reactor could be perfect to help generate power on a warship.
“It should be able to generate enough electricity for propulsion and electric equipment on an aircraft carrier,” he said.
Chen said the higher the temperature, the higher the power generation efficiency – a thorium-powered carrier could operate faster and longer than existing carriers using uranium as fuel.
“But the ship will need a very different structure to accommodate the new power source. It will be a difficult and tricky job because the rest of the ship must be strengthened to handle the increased power,” he said.
A military drone researcher in Beijing said a molten salt reactor could be used on a new generation of large, endurance drones operating at very high altitudes because it could be made very small and its operation did not require water.
“These drones would stay aloft over the oceans such as the Pacific. They would serve as a platform for surveillance, communication or weapon delivery to deter nuclear and other threats from hostile countries,” said the researcher, who asked not to be named.
“A nuclear-powered drone may be technically more feasible than manned aircraft because it does not require building a cockpit with lead to protect the human crew from radiation. It will also have more public acceptance. If an accident happens, it crashes into the sea,” the person said.
Yan said, however, that the aircraft research project still faced many challenges. To mount a reactor on an aircraft would require ultralight, super-strong materials which were still under development in the laboratory.
“This is where the Americans have failed,” he said.
China is to spend 22 billion yuan (US$3.3 billion) trying to perfect a form of technology largely discarded in the cold war which could produce a safer but more powerful form of nuclear energy.
The cash is to develop two “molten salt” reactors in the Gobi Desert in northern China.
Researchers hope that if they can solve a number of technical problems the reactors will lead to a range of applications, including nuclear-powered warships and drones.
The technology, in theory, can create more heat and power than existing forms of nuclear reactors that use uranium, while producing only one thousandth of the radioactive waste.
It also has the advantage for China of using thorium as its main fuel. China has some of the world’s largest reserves of the metal.
China is not alone in trying to revive the technology because of the potential benefits. Companies in the United States are working in the field, while Japan, Russia and France have all expressed renewed interest in the technology.
The Chinese project has been funded by the central government and the two reactors are to be built at Wuwei in Gansu province, according to a statement on the website of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The lead scientist on the project is Jiang Mianheng – the son of the former Chinese president Jiang Zemin – and it is hoped the reactors will be up and running by 2020.
The US air force built a 2.5-megawatt molten salt reactor in the 1950s as part of a programme to develop nuclear-powered aircraft engines.
The reactors use molten salt rather than water as a coolant, allowing them to create temperatures of over 800 degrees Celsius, nearly three times the heat produced by a commercial nuclear plant fuelled with uranium. The superhot air had the potential to drive turbines and jet engines and in theory keep a bomber flying at supersonic speed for days.
The US project was shelved in the 1970s. Problems were encountered trying to reduce the size and weight of the reactor, and there were public concerns over the safety of the technology when placed in an aircraft.
Another problem was the erosion to pipes and the reactor chamber caused by the hot salt used in the fission process.
Yan Long, a researcher involved in the Chinese project at the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, said the Gansu facility might eventually help China develop a thorium-powered warship or aircraft.
He said it was now possible to build a very small molten salt reactor and that after years of research and government funding, scientists had developed special alloy and coating materials to prevent chemical corrosion.
The reactors in Gansu were designed to demonstrate the feasibility of the technology, he said.
The research facility in Gansu will be built by a lake with high salt levels, according to the project blueprints.
Both reactors will be underground and the heat they generate will reach 12 megawatts. The heat will be channelled to a power generation plant, several factories and a desalination plant by the lake to produce electricity, hydrogen, industrial chemicals, drinking water and minerals.
After the experiment, China may move on to commercial or military use of the technology on a larger scale, Yan said.
“We are now developing new materials for warships. The materials must come with relatively low cost for mass production and they must be compact and light, otherwise the reactor won’t fit in a ship,” he said.
Chen Fu, a thermal physicist at the Harbin Institute of Technology involved in the development of new power generation systems for China’s navy, said the heat generated by a thorium molten salt reactor could be perfect to help generate power on a warship.
“It should be able to generate enough electricity for propulsion and electric equipment on an aircraft carrier,” he said.
Chen said the higher the temperature, the higher the power generation efficiency – a thorium-powered carrier could operate faster and longer than existing carriers using uranium as fuel.
“But the ship will need a very different structure to accommodate the new power source. It will be a difficult and tricky job because the rest of the ship must be strengthened to handle the increased power,” he said.
A military drone researcher in Beijing said a molten salt reactor could be used on a new generation of large, endurance drones operating at very high altitudes because it could be made very small and its operation did not require water.
“These drones would stay aloft over the oceans such as the Pacific. They would serve as a platform for surveillance, communication or weapon delivery to deter nuclear and other threats from hostile countries,” said the researcher, who asked not to be named.
“A nuclear-powered drone may be technically more feasible than manned aircraft because it does not require building a cockpit with lead to protect the human crew from radiation. It will also have more public acceptance. If an accident happens, it crashes into the sea,” the person said.
Yan said, however, that the aircraft research project still faced many challenges. To mount a reactor on an aircraft would require ultralight, super-strong materials which were still under development in the laboratory.
“This is where the Americans have failed,” he said.