Supersonic Chinese Submarines

A new laser-based propulsion technique developed by researchers at the Harbin Engineering University in China could help the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) build silent yet superfast submarines in the future.

The technology could also power underwater missiles and torpedoes, a South China Morning Post (SCMP) report said.

The concept of underwater laser propulsion isn’t new. Japanese researchers first considered it more than twenty years ago. In principle, the technology works fairly simply.  READ MORE...

Evidence of Gravitons

A research team led by Chinese scientists has provided the first experimental evidence hinting at the existence of gravitons, theoretical particles believed to mediate the force of gravity, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

This discovery marks a significant step towards bridging the gap between quantum mechanics and general relativity, two pillars of modern physics that have remained largely incompatible.

The research, carried out by a collaboration between scientists from Nanjing University in eastern China, the United States, and Germany, involved placing a thin layer of semiconductor under extreme conditions. 

By cooling the semiconductor to near absolute zero and applying a magnetic field 100,000 times stronger than the Earth’s, the team managed to excite the semiconductor’s electrons to move in unison. This collective motion caused the electrons to spin in a manner consistent with predictions about gravitons, despite not confirming the particle’s direct existence.

“Our work has shown the first experimental substantiation of gravitons in condensed matter since the elusive particle was conceptualized in the 1930s,” Du Lingjie, the study’s lead author from Nanjing University, told state news agency Xinhua, as reported by SCMP.  READ MORE...

World's Largest Antenna in China

A representative antenna


China has been slowly but steadily working its way to the top. Frequently making headlines with its space-related developments, the country now claims to be operating the world's largest antenna for its submarine operations.

What's special about the antenna is the fact that it was designed to maintain underwater communications over 1,900 miles (3,000 km), enough to reach Guam, the biggest U.S. military base in the western Pacific Ocean, according to the project’s lead engineer Zha Ming and his colleagues from the Wuhan Maritime Communication Research Institute, reports South China Morning Post.

While the gigantic antenna's current location remains unknown, the team said it lies somewhere 620 miles (1,000 km) south of Beijing, 1,242 miles (2,000 km) southeast of Dunhuang in northwest China, and 620 miles (1,000 km) east of Mianyang in the southwestern province of Sichuan.  READ MORE...

China's Satellite Dodges US Surveillance

A Chinese satellite has used a manoeuvre to avoid being followed by a spying US satellite, hinting at its capability in potential space warfare.

But some defence analysts said the scenario was not new and the incident should not be seen as escalating the rivalry between China and the United States in space.

“It is not difficult to monitor satellites,” said Chinese military commentator Song Zhongping. “The US, Russia and China are all able to monitor each other’s satellites in orbit. But the US will certainly plan its space infrastructure through monitoring the satellites of China and Russia.”

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Such monitoring and manoeuvring was not necessarily for a military purpose, he said.



In July, the Shijian 20, China’s heaviest and most advanced communication satellite, was approached in parallel by a US space surveillance satellite, USA 271. The Chinese satellite “rapidly” moved away, US military website Breaking Defence reported on Friday.

The Chinese detected the shadowing of the American satellite, the report said, citing information from space tracking company Commercial Space Operations Centre (ComSpOC).

“They start doing calibration manoeuvres and they’re very, very small manoeuvres, so it’s hard,” said Jim Cooper, the lead for space situational awareness at ComSpOC. “It’s about having the right system that can process and detect those small manoeuvres when you’re that close.”

The ComSpOC data also showed that in 2018, when another Chinese satellite, Tongxin Jishu Shiyan 3, took its position in geosynchronous orbit, the upper stage of the rocket that delivered the satellite had been loaded with extra fuel to enable it to stay parallel to it, to act as a decoy.

Cooper believed that was a tactic to fool an enemy’s network of space situational awareness, and to gain China several days of freedom during which it could “be off doing things that are potentially threatening” while the other country had lost track of where the Chinese satellite was.

Monitoring and manoeuvring the orbiting satellites is a necessity to avoid collisions, but the US has long been concerned about Chinese satellites’ capabilities in potential space warfare.  READ MORE...

American Firms WARNED

Excerp from South China Morning Poas...   www.scmp.com

China

US intelligence warns American firms to protect 5 key technologies from China

• Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, bioscience, semiconductors, and autonomous systems are five critical tech areas, says US intelligence
• American firms and researchers need to pay more attention to protect research against threats from nation-states acquiring American know-how, officials add

A robotic shark is seen at a cloud computing and artificial intelligence conference, in Hangzhou, in China’s eastern Zhejiang province on October 19. Photo: AFP

US intelligence officials issued a warning to American technology firms against working with China in five crucial areas.

Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, bioscience, semiconductors, and autonomous systems are sectors “where the stakes are potentially greatest for US economic and national security”, the National Counterintelligence and Security Centre (NCSC) said in a new paper.