Moon Probe Radio Telescope Complete

Chinese scientists in early April completed the main part of a high-tech radio telescope which will serve China's ambitious moon-probe project scheduled for launch in 2007. The 45-meter tall telescope weighs 400 tons and measures 40 meters in diameter of the antenna. It's located in southwest China's Yunnan Province and is the country's second largest radio telescope. The largest is being built in Beijing.

According to Li Yan, director of Yunnan Observatory of Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with two radio telescopes already set up in Shanghai and northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China now has four large radio telescopes which are 2,000 to 3,000 kilometers apart from each other.

The telescopes will form a comprehensive earth-based research and survey network that will be able to detect, track and retrieve data sent back from China's first moon-orbiting satellite, Li said.

Located on top of the 2000-meter-tall Mountain Phoenix in an eastern suburb of Kunming, capital city of Yunnan Province, the newest radio telescope is "superbly well positioned", the scientist said.

The construction of the telescope started in August last year and will be completely installed and tested by June.

(Source)

Tags: China | Space | Science