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This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
Scientists have begun calibrating China's first dark matter probe in order to produce more accurate data, more than a month after the detector started to search for signals of the invisible material.
The Dark Matter Particle Explorer Satellite, dubbed "Wukong" after the Monkey King character from the Chinese classic "Journey to the West", was launched in December.
Like the Monkey King who can see through objects with his sharp eyes, the satellite has the most sensitive and accurate detectors especially designed for dark matter. It started working a week after the satellite entered a sun-synchronous orbit.
The satellite has already collected more than 100 million high energy particles. Scientists will look for high-energy electrons and gamma rays among them, which could be residue of dark matter's extinction.
Wukong is sending back around 20 gigabits of data a day. All the data will be analyzed by a special computer equipped with 128 10-cored CPUs.
Dark matter is one of the great mysteries of modern science. Dark matter does not emit or reflect electromagnetic radiation that can be observed directly. Exploration of dark matter could give scientists a clearer understanding of the past and future of galaxies and the universe, and would revolutionize the fields of physics and space science.
Wukong is designed to undertake a three-year mission, but scientists hope it can last five years. Wukong will scan space nonstop in all directions in the first two years and then focus on areas where dark matter is most likely to be observed. Initial findings will be published as early as the second half of this year.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
China's new carrier rockets, Long March-5 and Long March-7, will make their maiden space flights in June and around the end of September or early October, respectively.
Long March-5 is currently being tested at a launch site in South China's Hainan Province.
According to the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, the new carrier rockets are using non-toxic, pollution-free fuels.
China's most powerful carrier rocket, the Long March-5 has a payload capacity of 25 tons to low Earth orbit, or 14 tons to geostationary transfer orbit.
It is scheduled to carry the Chang'e-5 lunar probe around 2017 to finish the last chapter in China's three-step moon exploration program, namely, orbiting, landing, and returning to earth from the moon.
Long March-7, a medium-sized rocket using liquid propellants, will carry up to 13-and-a-half tons to low Earth orbit or 5-and-a-half tons to sun-synchronous orbit at a height of 700 kilometers. It will carry cargo craft for the planned space station.
The corporation says the two carrier rockets' maiden flights will significantly boost China's ability to enter space and help realize leapfrog development in the country's space transportation system.
China has successfully completed 43 launch missions for more than 20 countries, regions and international satellite organizations since 1990.
