On the afternoon of December 9, 2021, Chinese astronauts aboard the country’s Tiangong space station gave a science lecture.

As the lecture began at 3:40 pm, Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu greeted students, teachers and other participants. They then showed viewers how they lived and worked inside the space station. The astronauts invited young viewers to do similar experiments (实验) along with them to watch the differences between space and the earth environments and experience fun. Before the end of the 60-minute event, the astronauts answered questions from some students.

Groups of invited students in Beijing, Nanning in Guangxi, Wenchuan in Sichuan, Hong Kong and Macao attended the lecture and took part in video chats with the astronauts. It was the first lecture from the Tiangong space station to popularize space science. According to the China Manned Space Agency, more lectures will be given by Chinese astronauts in the future. The purposes of such activities are to spread knowledge about manned spaceflights and encourage the public, especially young people, to learn more about science.

The Shenzhou-13 was sent into space on October 16 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China’s Gobi Desert, with the astronauts soon entering the Tiangong space station. They were expected to spend six months working in the station, making it China’s longest manned space mission (任务).

The agency said, “As a national space-based laboratory, Tiangong is helpful in spreading science and technology knowledge.”

The AI （人工智能） has changed our lives. There are four useful AI inventions here.

Jiuge

The AI can remember 300, 000 Chinese poems clearly. What’s more, it can write a poem in a very short time. In a CCTV show, Jiuge beat three great poem fans from a famous college.

Forpheus

The ping-pong robot can play in an easy way with a beginner and a difficult way with a better player. What’s more, it not only encourages players with words like “Good job!” but also gives some good advice to improve their skills.

Self-driving AI

It can drive the car more safely than humans. It doesn’t drink wine and never feels tired. It can do what we humans do. For example, if a car with this AI has passed a bus, it will flash（闪）two white lights side to side to show thanks to the bus.

Facial Recognition（人脸识别）

It is used a lot in the world such as ACS. ACS won’t let a stranger in without the house owner’s permission（允许）. Paying by facial recognition is common now. The police in Hangzhou even caught a criminal（罪犯）at a concert with its help.

In our modern age, we do not think much about how our technology works. We are so used to tapping on our phone screen to get a map of our location. But how do our phones know where in the world we are and in which direction we are going? It is all thanks to the satellites in space that help our phones calculate our position. Depending on where you are around the world, your phone may be receiving data from different systems. In Europe, people have the Galileo system. In Russia, they have GLONASS. In the USA, people use GPS. China, meanwhile, has the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS).

The BDS in operation today is more advanced than the first version (版本) of the system, which was sent into space in 2000. The present version has better technology and more satellites. The system is not finished, though. When it is completed, there will be lots of BDS satellites. In the future, those satellites will allow us to discover the position of objects with millimetre accuracy (精确度): that is ten times more accurate than GPS.

Even though more satellites are being added to the system, the BDS has already been put to use. More than 40,000 Chinese fishing boats are using the system now. These boats are very helpful in search and rescue operations (营救行动) at sea. They are able to communicate with support services on land as well as give the exact locations of ships in trouble.

The BDS is being used on land as well. Of course, it’s not hard to imagine how the system is helping the police and firefighters do their job. Agriculture is another area where there are applications for the system. Farmers are able to put the data to good use when operating smart farming equipment. For example, the BDS can be used to control driverless tractors as they turn up the fields. Farmers are also using drones (无人机) 10 check the health of crops and spread seeds over fields.

Although the BDS is of Chinese origin(起源), the developers have said that “China’s BeiDou is the world’s BeiDou”, and they are actively developing international cooperation. Developers predict that the system will not only grow in popularity within China, but overseas as well. And when the system is complete and fully operational in the years to come, the BDS will undoubtedly bring lots of advantages to China and the rest of the world.