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China has launched its first set of giant radio antennas to support missions to Mars and the Moon, sources with the Xi’an Satellite Control Center said Wednesday.
After nearly two years of construction, the deep space antenna array system was built at the control center’s Kashgar station in northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It consists of four antennas of 35 meters in diameter, three of which are newly built. Its data reception capacity is equivalent to that of an antenna with a diameter of 66 meters.
According to the center’s staff, the system was developed to improve the ground station’s monitoring range and sensitivity to receiving data for the country’s deep space exploration projects. It was used to track the Mars Tianwen 1 probe and the Chang’e 4 lunar probe.
Because each antenna can operate independently, the system can track and control single and multiple spacecraft for hundreds of millions of kilometers simultaneously, said Li Sihu, head of Kashgar station.
Li noted that the system could also work with other observation stations at home and abroad to carry out joint radio astronomy observation activities.
China plans to launch a Long March 5 Y5 rocket carrying the Chang’e 5 lunar probe later this month. The center is preparing to conduct monitoring for the mission.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
Related links
China National Space Agency
Space Technology News – Applications and Research
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