Hidden figures
Young heroes and heroines behind the success of China’s domestically developed satellite navigation system
Yu Su stared at the screen in the monitor room in the main building of the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST).
“Look! These are satellites!” he said, pointing at the jumping numbers and changing graphics. It was very difficult to link these abstract statistics to the images of satellites in our minds.
“The changing statistics are the ‘heart beat’ of satellites,” Yu said. He is in a white gown, like a doctor for satellites. Before the launch of each satellite, he has to finish several rounds of tests. Each test contains hundreds statistics, and results in reports of three or four hundred pages.
On December 27, 2018, China announced that its domestically developed BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) has started to provide a global service with positioning accuracy of 10 meters and timing accuracy y of 20 nanoseconds.
Nineteen BDS-3 satellites have been successfully launched with stable and reliable inter-satellite links. The deployment of the core constellation for the BDS-3 system has been successfully completed, according to the official document Development of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (Version 3.0) released in December 2018.
Behind the success of the country’s key scientific project are generations of scientists’ efforts, including young ones.
Statistics show that in the China Academy of Space Technology, the institute leading the development of BDS-3, there are more than 2,400 employees born after 1990, accounting for over 10 percent of the total in the institute. These young scientists play a significant role in developing the BDS-3 system.
On every position
Sitting not far from Yu is his colleague Hu Fan, who is responsible for monitoring the automatic control and operation of the satellites when they cannot receive a ground signal.
“I worked with the satellites for two months, working on a single test. Of course I have a deep emotional attachment to them!” said Hu, a young woman born in the 1990s.
Managing the engines of the satellites is the job of Yang Nanji from the 502 Institute of the China Academy of Space Technology.
When she begins to talk about work, her eyes shine. “Controlling the forward system is like ‘dancing on the edge of a knife.’ It is a hard errand, and calls for patience and elaborate attention to detail.”
As filling fuel for the engine has a risk of danger, it takes a month of rehearsals to make sure that no drop leaks.
The engine has 71 parts and more than 200 welded spots, and the thinnest is only 2.4 millimeters. Scientists have to make sure it is not blocked nor leaking by testing it with helium.
Yang is the only female in the group, but she never complains. “The satellite that I helped research has been launched into space. It was my happiest moment.”
Chen Lingling’s job is to build a channel between BeiDou satellites.
“I am not very good at communicating with people. I prefer working with machines,” Chen said, adding that she is shy in real life, but feels much freer “talking” with machines.
Born in 1993, Liao Hongbo assembles the parts of BeiDou satellites. “It is magical to witness with my eyes that the BeiDou satellites become a whole from many single parts,” he said.
Meanwhile, Wang Guoxing’s job is to put solar array wings on the satellites. “The wings are more than 10 meters long, but the allowed horizontal installation error is smaller than a millimeter.”
Wang said that he had thought it was an easy job, but after he “learned lessons,” he found that every detail in the job must be thought over slowly and one cannot take any work for granted.
Tough enough
When Chen first joined the CAST, she was often sleepless. Her dreams were all about work.
“The jobs distributed to us were fundamental, complex and numerous. You could never be casual with any data. A small problem could affect the whole thing,” she said.
After gaining experience in work, Chen has been calm and patient. Once during a wireless test, she found an abnormal spectrum flashed on screen. It was already close to the deadline, so even experienced employees would be nervous.
However, Chen was not scared by the situation, but carefully checked her work and solved the issue.
Solving problems with flexible ideas is also a characteristic of the young space scientists.
Yu developed small programs to improve the efficiency of tests. Wang also designed a device to save time and efforts in tests.
Li Wentao, Wang’s teacher, said that the post-1990 generation are fond of technologies and inventions, and “they were born tough.”
Loving life
“I could not attend my friend’s wedding in which I promised to be the best woman,” Hu said.
In September, she was at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province and planned to rest over the National Day holiday in October. “I did not expect to receive a new task at the airport back home.”
Her life has been changed by her work on the BeiDou system. “When I feel lost, I call my family. Then I receive confidence again,” she said. Even though she has less time with family, they are very proud of her.
Though the young scientists cannot talk much about their work to others, and the work always keeps them busy, they still enjoy their work and life.
Liao loves baking. He feels relaxed and happy in making tiramisu, tarts and cheese pies. He also met her girlfriend in the institute.
“When the satellite we are working on is launched, we will go out to travel,” Yang said. However, new tasks often come to him before the previous one finishes. “When the global network of BeiDou is finished, we will depart,” Yang said.