PROGRAM RESULTS

As can be seen, specific results were made available on Shi Jian 8. Results from the earlier 22 missions were associated not always with individual missions, but with groups of missions, and the individual satellites flown were often not identified. Nevertheless, the Chinese made a significant effort to present program outcomes collectively, so they are reviewed here.

The first scientific results of the series were reported from 1987, with the first of six materials processing flights [17]. Rice seeds brought back to the Earth crossed with Earthly grains produced high yield rates, some giving 53% more protein. Space-grown yeast offered higher and faster fermentation rates, opening up new prospects for a space beer industry. Algae flourished in orbit. Altogether, 300 varieties of seeds and 51 kinds of plants were carried in seven different biology packages. Once back from space, seeds from the plants grown on board – rice, carrot, wheat, green pepper, tomato, cucumber, maize, and soya bean – were planted out by the Institute of Genetics, further note being taken of succeeding generations over the following years. Space-exposed rice were set on a field of 667 ha, a substantial terrain, to test their yields. The results varied. Some strains of rice improved from their space experience, while others did not. Some grains grew faster and were fatter, heavier, and sturdier. Wheat experiments produced new strains that had short stems and grew fast. One strain of green pepper, called the Weixing 87-2, demonstrated a 108% increased yield, 38% less vulnerability to disease, and a 25% improved vitamin C content, bearing fruit long after terrestrial peppers had lost their leaves. Bumper 400-g green peppers were bred – twice as much as normal ground size. A fifth-generation space tomato had a yield 85% higher than its terrestrial rivals and doubled its resistance to disease. Space-grown cucumbers demonstrated a surprising ability to withstand greenhouse mildew and wilt. Female cucumber flowers were observed to flourish in the space environment. Asparagus seeds flown in space also thrived on the Earth. Overall, these outcomes matched similar results from Russian space biology experiments in which some plants thrived, others wilted, and many grew into strange shapes.

The missions of the 1990s produced more results. Exposure to weightlessness created a genetic variation in seeds which meant that the replanted seeds doubled their weight and grew taller fruit with a higher resistance to disease, a higher proportion of vitamin C, and a longer shelf life. In 1998, following these experiments, a Space Vegetable Foundation was established in Anning by the Academy of Sciences, where it further developed and sold “space fruit” to the open market. By 2002, space vegetable gardens had been established in Hebei, Gansu, and Sichuan, and 12 varieties of wheat, rice, tomato, peppers, and cucumber were grown. The space-developed cucumbers were especially successful, growing 20% longer than the purely Earthbound variety, and had a strong disease resistance (as well as tasting better, according to the experts). This was a big program, for, by the time of Shi Jian 8, space-bred seeds had been planted on 560,000 ha of farmland, producing 340 tonnes worth €50m.

Results from the Earth observations carried out on FSW missions were sparse until outcomes of the FSW 2-3 were reported in 1996. A real problem here is that no published photographs were ever attributed to FSW and images of the ground published in the Chinese media during the period of the program appeared to come from Western satellites. This may have reflected either limited distribution channels or, more Ukely, a desire not to reveal the resolution of the cameras when their principal purpose was military. Nevertheless, China claimed substantial benefits from the photography work of the FSWs. A new map of China was commissioned in 1949, but only 64% of it had been finished by 1982: 600 FSW pictures were able to finish the job in a matter of months. The total number of islands off the Chinese coast was recalculated at 5,000, instead of 3,300. The country’s farmland was recalculated at 125.3m ha rather than 104.6m ha. The FSW satelhtes had compiled detailed Earth resource maps of Beijing and its eastern environs, Tianjin and Tangshan. Oil deposits were discovered in Tarim, chromium and iron deposits in Inner Mongolia, and coal elsewhere. The FSW satellites discovered remnants of the Yuan dynasty’s ancient city of Yingchang: they even uncovered buildings erected in 1270 by the first Yuan emperor, Kublai Khan, for his daughter, Princess Luguo Dachang. Images tracked the path of the Great Wall across northern China and found the old walls of the Chengde summer palace. FSW satellites were used to prepare geological survey maps, identify the optimum routes for railway lines, and track the patterns of silting in the Huang (Yellow), Luan, and Hai Rivers. They tracked water and air pollution, observed soil erosion, and identified geological fault lines. The FSW satellites located goldfields in Mongolia, and oil and natural gas in the Yellow River delta and offshore.

Data from the FSW and Feng Yun series, combined with information from the American Landsat and the French SPOT satellites, provided a worrying picture of desertification in Qinghai in the north-west. Dynamic changes were taking place, according to the satellite data: dunes had advanced, grassland was damaged, and water resources had been misused. Elsewhere, soil erosion had been noted. Positively, the rate of afforestation had been assessed and was seen to be growing.

The use of windbreak forests in northern China had already regenerated the ecology of the area. Earth resources satellites carefully tracked the evolution, speed, and impact of the Yellow River: as a result, timely warnings about floods were given before the inundations in 1991, minimizing damage. Satellite tracking of the 1987 forest fires in Xinanlang enabled firefighters to save up to 10% of the forests from further damage. By 2000, China reported, as accomplishments of the FSW series, the mapping of the sand deposited to sea by the Yellow River (Huang He), the finding of seven mineral deposits for the Capital Iron & Steel Co., four new oilfields in Xinjiang, the completion of a general territorial survey, 80 material science experiments, and improved tomato yields of 20% with 40% reduction in disease.

A progress report was issued on the outcomes of the FSW materials processing and biology missions, such as the results of experiments from gallium arsenide superconductors. Eighteen different materials were used to develop crystals in orbit, the dominant ones being gallium and lithium. These experiments, developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Hebei Semiconductor Research Institute, found that electronic devices made from crystals in space outperformed those developed on the Earth. Space-manufactured crystals were more sensitive, carried more current, and were less prone to voltage noise or likely to suffer leakage. Tests on alloys, tellurium, and gallium arsenide yielded positive results, crystals having high purity. Space-grown gallium arsenide crystals were better and were the basis for making quality superconductor lasers.

To test the value of algae in closed-cycle systems, 17 types of algae and zooplankton were carried into orbit in a 759-cm3 incubator, some surviving well but others succumbing. Building on experiments on the Soviet Salyut orbital stations, cell cultures were brought into orbit, principally leukemia T-cells and carcinogenic

samples from human lungs, finding that their growth slowed considerably due to the combination of zero gravity and the radiation environment [18].