The construction of the facility, which has four 35-meter-diameter antennas for transmitting and receiving radio signals, took almost two years, the China Daily newspaper reported
BEIJING, November 21. /TASS/. China has put into operation antennas to maintain communication with spacecraft that will participate in missions to explore the moon and Mars. This was reported by the China Daily newspaper.
According to her, the advanced equipment is located in the satellite control center, which is located in the city of Kashgar in the North-West of China. It took almost two years to build this facility, which houses four 35-meter-diameter devices for transmitting and receiving radio signals.
"Each antenna is able to work independently and does not depend on the others, so such a system will be able to track and monitor the location of many spacecraft located hundreds of millions of kilometers from Earth," said the head of the radar station Li Sihu.
According to him, the object will interact with observatories located both in China and abroad. It is expected that it will increase the effectiveness of international cooperation in the field of astronomical observations.
According to the project management, the station is already used for monitoring the Chinese Mars probe "Tianwen-1" and the automatic interplanetary station "Chang'e-4". This will increase the coverage of monitoring and improve the accuracy of data obtained from space. It is expected that this center will facilitate the mission to deliver lunar soil samples to Earth.
China is actively developing its national space program, developing meteorological, telecommunications and navigation satellites, as well as technologies for lunar exploration. In early August, Chinese scientists launched the first national project to explore Mars, which they intend to begin intensive study of the surface in the near future. Among the promising Chinese programs is the study of asteroids and mining on them.
