China has unveiled its latest ambitious space-based computing network designed to process satellite data in orbit using AI before sending the results to Earth. Xingshu, or “Star Hub”, will eventually comprise around 1,000 satellites, according to Chi Nan, an optical communications professor at Fudan University. The network is being jointly developed by Fudan and Shanghai Xingshu Tiansuan Space Technology Co. It would offer on-demand, time-based computing services in orbit, allowing governments,...
A satellite that can provide 24/7 surveillance of a third of the Earth’s surface relies on a rare mineral whose global supply is dominated by China, a new study has disclosed. The Ludi Tance-4 01 radar satellite, powered by gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors, is the only satellite of its kind. It orbits 36,000km (22,000 miles) above the Earth and is able to stay in what is known as a geosynchronous orbit, which keeps it fixed over the same spot. This allows it to monitor both large areas of...
A Chinese researcher’s vision of serving spicy crawfish soup to astronauts on Mars became an unlikely symbol of Washington’s growing anxiety over China’s scientific ambitions at a US Senate hearing on Tuesday. Drew Endy, associate professor at Stanford University and director of bio-strategy and leadership at the Hoover Institution, said that last autumn he met a 20-year-old Chinese researcher from Shanghai at a scientific conference in Paris. Dressed in a large red crawfish costume, the young...