How to See China's Space Capsule and Lab Module in Night Sky

A Chinese Long March 2F rocket launches on the Shenzhou 9 mission, China's first manned space docking flight and first flight of a female astronaut, on June 16, 2012 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. CREDIT: China Manned Space Engineering Office View full size image

The launch of China's fourth human spaceflight this weekend kicked off a major docking test flight, and there's a chance you can see the two spaceships involved in the orbital rendezvous in tonight's night sky.

China's Shenzhou 9 space capsule launched into orbit Saturday (June 16) with a crew of three astronauts aboard, including China's first female spaceflyer Liu Yang. The crew's mission is to rendezvous with China's existing space laboratory module Tiangong 1, which has been circling Earth since its own launch last September.

The two spacecraft are expected to dock for the first time on Monday (June 18), which means that if you live in a part of the world that is along the Shenzhou 9 mission's flight path, tonight is your last chance (weather permitting) to see the space capsule and Tiangong 1 orbiting lab flying separately before they link up.

 This spectacular view shows the rocket boosters separating as planned from China's Long March 2F rocket during the successful launch of Shenzhou 9 on June 16, 2012.

CREDIT: China Central Television/CCTV

View full size image

Here's how to find out if the Shenzhou 9 capsule and Tiangong 1 will be visible from your location:

First, some tips: Keep in mind that the key to spacecraft viewing from Earth are dark skies (away from bright city lights), clear weather and good planning to know when and where to look to see the vehicles. Satellites and manned spacecraft often appear as bright pinpoints of lights that move quickly across the night sky. 

Analysts say China's exclusion from the ISS, largely on objections from the United States, was one of the key spurs for it to pursue an independent program 20 years ago.

The International Space Station, for example, is the largest human-built structure in space and can appear so bright in the sky that its brilliance rivals that of the planet Venus at times. Since the Tiangong 1 lab and Shenzhou 9 capsule are smaller than the space station, they will likely not appear as bright.

The following three websites are good starting points to determining if the vehicles involved in the Shenzhou 9 mission may be visible from your region.

• Chris Peat's Heavens Above
• NASA's SkyWatch
• Spaceweather.com

Each site will ask for a zip code or city, and then respond with a list of suggested spotting times. The predictions are computed a few days ahead of time are usually accurate within a few minutes. But they have been known to change, so be sure to check frequently for updates.

Another good resource is the website Real Time Satellite Tracking, which shows which part of the Earth a wide variety of spacecraft happen to be flying over at any given moment during the day or night.





Watch live online via CCTV news channel here: http://english.cntv.cn/special/shenzhou9/index.shtml

China's 13-day Shenzhou 9 mission will dock twice at the Tiangong 1 space lab, first in an automatic mode and then again in a manual mode, to demonstrate spaceflight rendezvous technology. Chinese space officials have said the test flight is vital to the country's plans to begin building a full-fledged space station in 2020.

Editor's note: If you snap amazing photos of China's Shenzhou 9 capsule or Tiangong 1 module in orbit that you'd like to be considered for use in a story or gallery, please send pictures and comments to SPACE.com managing editor Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com.

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

by Tariq Malik, SPACE.com Managing Editor Date: 17 June 2012 Time: 07:00 AM ET

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A boost for pandas diplomacy

The panda loan from China is more than just a visit by two cuddly animals — its significance goes beyond that as far as diplomatic and economic relations are concerned.

PUBLIC excitement has risen since Monday’s announcement that Malaysia will host a pair of giant panda cubs from China for 10 years.

It’s a big deal. You cannot put a value to this because the Chinese Government does not simply send off their pandas to zoos around the world.

The universally loved pandas are regarded as national treasures and certainly deserve to be given the royal treatment.

Taking a snooze: A giant panda resting on a tree stump in a giant panda research centre in Wolong, China’s Sichuan province. The universally loved pandas are regarded as national treasures. — Reuters

 

On Friday, an agreement was signed by the China Wildlife Conservation Association and Malaysia’s Wildlife and National Parks Department. It is certainly a feather in the cap because the panda loan request was made by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao during his visit to Nanning in April.

Besides Malaysia, only eight other countries have reportedly been given the honour of hosting these giant pandas, including Thailand and Singapore. In the case of Malaysia, the loan is to mark our 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties with China.

Singapore’s panda pair of Kai Kai and Jia Jia are due to arrive in September, about six months later than the originally planned date.

Their new home is River Safari in Mandai, which is slated to be open by the year’s end. It has been reported that the pandas will be placed in a 1,500 sq metre enclosure that will cost Singapore S$8.5mil (RM20.9mil).

The enclosure, which includes an outdoor area, a walkway that allows visitors to view the pandas up close and an air-conditioned exhibit area, will be ready by the end of this month.

Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) chairman Claire Chiang was quoted as saying that the environment had to be at its best when the pandas arrived.

“The pandas are a precious gift from the state, so we are exercising the highest level of prudence and a heightened sense of responsibility,” she said.

When the panda loan to Singapore was first announced, a television crew was sent to Sichuan Province for a sneak preview of the pandas at the Bifengxia base.

The authorities went on a public relations campaign to boast of its “eco-friendly” food for the two pandas, pointing out that a special bamboo plantation covering 8,000 sq metres had been created to grow bamboo for the endangered animals.

In Thailand, Chiangmai Zoo has been home to panda couple Lin Hui and Xuang Xuang, on loan from China since 2003. The zoo has been really lucky because Lin Hui gave birth to her first baby in May 2009.

The panda birth created such a global sensation that visitors waited in long queues just to catch a glimpse of baby Lin Ping through closed circuit television during its first three months.

Shortly after the birth, The Nation newspaper quoted zoo director Thanapat Pongamorn as saying that the zoo had clinched a deal with cable television True to broadcast the life of Lin Ping and other animals at the zoo for two years.

At the time of the report, Lin Ping had already raked in 10 million baht (RM1mil) for the zoo, with half of the zoo’s daily income of 100,000 to 200,000 baht (RM10,000 to RM20,000) coming from tickets for the panda section.

For Singapore and Thailand, the authorities and the public wasted no time in exploring the numerous opportunities available from the loan of the pandas instead of engaging in time-consuming unproductive debate.

That aside, it is important for us to note that diplomatic ties between Malaysia and China are at its peak today. According to reports, bilateral trade volume is set to hit US101bil (RM319bil) this year, after reaching US$91bil (RM287bil) in 2011.

We are also reportedly the third country in Asia to hit this milestone after Japan and South Korea. Malaysia benefited from a surplus of US$30bil (RM95bil) last year, with IT products making up 40% of bilateral trade and palm oil being the biggest commodity export to China.

Relations with China received a further boost when both sides launched the China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park. There is already talk of setting up an economic and trade cooperation zone in Malaysia.

The panda loan is more than just a visit by two cuddly animals – its significance goes beyond that as far as diplomatic and economic relations are concerned. A lot is at stake, thus the pandas deserve nothing but the best during their stay here.

On The Beat  By WONG CHUN WAI

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Quantum Computing? Quantum Bar Magnets in a Transparent Salt

ScienceDaily (June 15, 2012) — Scientists have managed to switch on and off the magnetism of a new material using quantum mechanics, making the material a test bed for future quantum devices.

This image shows the antiferromagnetic arrangement of the spins (colored arrows) in the magnetic salt used by the Swiss-German-US-London team. (Credit: University College London)

The international team of researchers led from the Laboratory for Quantum Magnetism (LQM) in Switzerland and the London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN), found that the material, a transparent salt, did not suffer from the usual complications of other real magnets, and exploited the fact that its quantum spins -- which are like tiny atomic magnets -- interact according to the rules of large bar magnets. The study is published in Science.

Anybody who has played with toy bar magnets at school will remember that opposite poles attract, lining up parallel to each other when they are placed end to end, and anti-parallel when placed adjacent to each other. As conventional bar magnets are simply too large to reveal any quantum mechanical nature, and most materials are too complex for the spins to interact like true bar magnets, the transparent salt is the perfect material to see what's going on at the quantum level for a dense collection of tiny bar magnets.

The team were able to image all the spins in the special salt, finding that the spins are parallel within pairs of layers, while for adjacent layer pairs, they are antiparallel, as large bar magnets placed adjacent to each other would be. The spin arrangement is called "antiferromagnetic." In contrast, for ferromagnets such as iron, all spins are parallel.

By warming the material to only 0.4 degrees Celsius above the absolute "zero" of temperature where all classical (non-quantum) motion ceases, the team found that the spins lose their order and point in random directions, as iron does when it loses its ferromagnetism when heated to 870 Celsius, much higher than room temperature because of the strong and complex interactions between electron spins in this very common solid.

The team also found that they could achieve the same loss of order by turning on quantum mechanics with an electromagnet containing the salt. Thus, physicists now have a new toy, a collection of tiny bar magnets, which naturally assume an antiferromagnetic configuration and for which they can dial in quantum mechanics at will.

"Understanding and manipulating magnetic properties of more traditional materials such as iron have of course long been key to many familiar technologies, from electric motors to hard drives in digital computers," said Professor Gabriel Aeppli, UCL Director of the LCN.

"While this may seem esoteric, there are deep connections between what has been achieved here and new types of computers, which also rely on the ability to tune quantum mechanics to solve hard problems, like pattern recognition in images."

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China Manned Space Mission successful

The Long March-2F carrier rocket carrying China's manned Shenzhou-9 spacecraft blasts off from the launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northwest China's Gansu Province, June 16, 2012. (Xinhua/Li Gang) JIUQUAN, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Commander-in-chief of China's manned space program Chang Wanquan announced Saturday that Shenzhou-9 spacecraft had accurately entered its orbit, calling the spaceship launch a success. Space.com: You can watch China's Shenzhou 9 launch live online via the state-run CCTV news channel here: http://english.cntv.cn/special/shenzhou9/index.shtml FULL VIDEO: Shenzhou-9 blasts off CCTV News - CNTV English.

We have lift off! China sends woman astronaut into orbit in most ambitious space mission yet

• New hero for a billion people as China's first female astronaut successfully enters space
• The 33-year-old is with two male astronauts on a mission to the 'Heavenly Palace' space station
• The astronauts are now orbiting at 213 miles above Earth and expected to reach the space station on Monday 
• Analysts say China's exclusion from the ISS, largely on objections from the United States, was one of the key spurs for it to pursue an independent program 20 years ago.

By Lawrence Conway

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2160213/We-lift-China-sends-woman-astronaut-orbit-ambitious-space-mission-yet.html#ixzz1y1meGnsk

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Singaporeans living in shoebox, the ‘Mickey Mouse’

Living in a shoebox

Singapore’s ‘Mickey Mouse’ flats are not conducive for raising a family.

A NEW trend has arrived in land-scarce Singapore and it is coined the “shoebox condo” – a tiny apartment just about the size of half a badminton court.

The Singapore government has pledged to put an end to it but private developers have sold nearly 7,000 of these flats that measure less than 500sq ft to young Singaporeans desperate to buy a condo.

They buy them either as a lifestyle choice or but more likely for economic considerations. Property prices have spiralled out of reach for most people.

To developers, this is a potential goldmine if they are allowed to go on, getting a bigger bang for their investments.

But with land growing scarcer, downsizing people’s homes remains a long-term certainty to accommodate the mass influx of foreigners.

The trouble is that these “Mickey Mouse” homes have serious social implication for a nation that desperately needs to get young people to procreate more.

Shoebox condos may be ideal for renting out to foreigners but they are not the best way for the Singapore family and children.

“People have to think hard before buying one,” advises a property agent. “If you decide to settle down and raise a family in future, you’ll find it difficult to do so.”

They also make for a reduced quality of life and the government is trying to discourage the trend through persuasion before taking action. It may, for example, impose a special tax on these units.

So far, these baby apartments have not made an appearance in Singapore’s public Housing Development Board (HDB) estates, which house 80% of the population.

HDB housing, too, has undergone some long-term reduction in size, but is relatively controlled.

According to official statistics quoted by a local newspaper, the average size of a five-room flat in one estate had dropped from 103sq m in 1989 to 91sq m in 2006 – a 12% fall.

In perspective, Singapore’s family size has shrunk even more — from 4.9 to 3.5 persons per family — during the same period, a drop of 28%. As a consequence, officials say, each Singaporean actually has a larger space.

National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wah said he knew of no downsizing of HDB flats during the past 15 years.

The government wants to “maintain a good quality of life” and has no plan to do so.

Home downsizing is a sensitive issue in Singapore, given people’s increasing unhappiness with the government’s immigration open door policy.

The two — housing woes and foreign intake — are related.

Already Singapore, with 7,023 persons living in each sq km of space, has overtaken Hong Kong (6,346 persons) as the third densest-populated city in the world, behind Macau and Monaco.

The former National Development Minister, Mah Bow Tan, had assured Singaporeans that the island was big enough for a 6.5-million population.

There was no need for a massive across-the-board change in development density, he added. The minister was accused of under-building public housing before he was replaced last year.

Shoebox condos are actually not a new invention. Studio apartments had long made the scene in central Singapore.

The smallest recent one measuring only 24sq m (or 258sq ft) is due for completion next year.

A brochure lists this “Mickey Mouse” unit as consisting — believe it or not — of a kitchen, a dining area, bathroom, master bedroom and a living area.

Not only has the average property size in Singapore been reduced to squeeze in more homes, the buildings are being built higher.

In central Singapore, a public residential complex known as The Pinnacle@Duxton has been built consisting of seven 50-storey connected towers.

Singapore is also using more underground space. In more parts of the city, shopping malls, train networks, civil defence shelters and pedestrian links as well as ammunition and oil storage have been built or planned.

Even discounting baby condos, which are a special breed, the average size of a normal private apartment on the island republic has been shrinking over the years.

In the 1970s, a 1,700sq ft flat was considered average; today it is a luxury.

The private property market is fast going the way of Hong Kong and Japan.

Some 30 years ago when I was a working as a journalist in the then British colony, I was living in a 600sq ft two-roomer in the heart of Causeway Bay.

One of my first articles was on housing. It pointed out that the world standard was for a minimum of 55sq ft of space per person.

“Hong Kong provided 24sq ft for each of its residents – slightly bigger than the size of a coffin,” I wrote then.

The official attitude towards baby condos between 2010 (when the government was dealt a strong election rebuff) and this year has changed.

Then Housing Minister Mah seemed happy with its appearance.

He said: “If people want to buy shoebox units and are prepared to pay those prices, why should we stop them?”

His Penang-born successor Khaw, however, wants to discourage the flow.

Singapore’s living density may already be affecting its image abroad. The Ireland-based International Living magazine now ranks Singapore — one of Asia’s wealthiest states — a lowly 70th position among top places to live in.

Is there any sign of change? Unlikely. The former top city planner, Liu Thai Ker, has advised Singaporeans to expect “higher population density”.

“We are near the saturation point of unbearable congestion,” wrote one critic. “Beyond this, Singaporeans may not put up with this kind of stressful living.”

Insight Down South By SEAH CHIANG NEE cnseah05@hotmail.com