China is on track to launch its first Mars probe around 2020, and plans call for retrieving soil and rock samples from the red planet before 2030, said Zhang Rongqiao, the mission's chief designer. China aims to become the first country to conduct an orbital and surface exploration of Mars in a single mission, he said on Wednesday at an international forum on lunar and deep space exploration in Beijing. The Chinese Mars probe consists of three parts: orbiter, lander and rover. It will carry 13 scientific instruments - seven in the orbiter and six in the rover, he said. The orbiter will collect data on Mars' atmosphere, electromagnetic field, temperatures, surface landscape and other key scientific indicators, he said. The rover, weighing around 200 kilograms, will focus on collecting surface data, as well as testing other equipment to pave the way for future sample retrieval missions between 2025 and 2030. Overall, China's first Mars mission "is going smoothly and all according to plan", he added. Russia, India, the US and the European Space Agency have probes orbiting Mars, but only the US has successfully landed a rover and carried out surface missions. Around 2020, NASA, the ESA and the United Arab Emirates will also launch Mars probes. Before 2020, China will launch an unmanned landing mission to the moon named Chang'e 4, as well as a moon sample retrieval mission named Chang'e 5. In the following years, China will explore asteroids and smaller bodies to understand the solar system's origin and formation, and search for information on possible extraterrestrial life. China also plans to launch probes to Jupiter in 2036 and Uranus in 2046, Zhang said. However, these planets are so far away from the sun that light is too weak to power solar-powered probes. Chemical propulsion systems face long-term storage issues and an even harsher environment in space, he added. "Since Mars is close to Earth and shares relatively similar characteristics, it has become the priority target in deep space exploration," Zhang said. "Not only might Mars serve for future robotic or human settlement, studying its evolution can help us answer some of the key questions in cosmology that can have a profound impact on our life." One example is that NASA has confirmed that liquid water existed on Mars, "so is Mars the past or the future of Earth? Studying how Mars became a mostly barren, arid planet can help with our own environmental protection effort on Earth," Zhang said. hen do wristbandssilicone bracelets custom cheap24hr wristbandcustom printed wristbandsblack rubber wristbandsrubber wristbands custom cheap
A worker connects a light bulb with a plug to a socket that is submerged in water.[Photo by HUANG ZHILING/CHINA DAILY] Zhou Gang turned on the shower and aimed the stream of water at an electrical outlet connected to a water heater in a simulated bathroom. The heater kept working, and he didn't get a shock. Near the bathroom, a woman connected a light bulb with a plug to a socket that had been submerged in a cylinder of water. No short circuit resulted. The bulb stayed on. And she wasn't shocked, even when she reached into the water to disconnect the bulb. The demonstrations took place during a recent visit to a showroom at Chengdu ArGangle Technology, in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Zhou, 32, is the chairman of ArGangle, which focuses on the research and development of insulated electrical technology. A native of Chengdu, Zhou suffered from an electric shock as a child. Because of his interest in electricity, he suspended his studies at the Nanchang Institute of Technology in Jiangxi province after one year and returned to Sichuan to set up his company 10 years ago. The company has now developed an electrical concept known as an insulated electricity connection, which can connect to an outlet in water without causing an electric shock or shorting out. The secret? There is an insulating material in each socket. Zhou said they will be sold for 85 yuan ($13) apiece when they appear on the market at the end of this year. Zhou patented the insulated connection in China, South Korea, Japan, Australia and the United States. He obtained additional patent protection from 95 national signatories to the patent cooperation treaty. Wang Zhongcheng, deputy Party chief of Pidu district in Chengdu, said the district government has signed an agreement with ArGangle to jointly build an insulated electricity connection base. A plant for manufacturing outlets using the insulated connection has been built on 5 hectares in Pidu. When the plant starts production at the end of this year, it is expected to produce up to 20 million socket outlets a year, Wang said.
