The largest fully steerable antenna in Asia, 70 meters in diameter, was delivered to the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on Feb 3.
Developed by China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), the antenna is a key breakthrough in radio astronomy development and is expected to play a major role in deep space exploration.
With functions such as stable reception of weak artificial data and perception of the extremely-weak normal astrophysical radiated electromagnetic waves found throughout the universe, the antenna will help receive scientific data sent back by the Tianwen 1, China's unmanned Mars probe.
Several special technologies and sensors were used and installed on the key parts like the antenna reflector and the base to measure temperature, inclination and weather conditions to improve the antenna's precision.
In the future, the facility will be improved to obtain more data signals in various frequency bands.
(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)