1.
China lunar probe sheds light on the ‘dark’ side
of the moon
In this photo provided Jan. 3, 2019, by China National Space Administration via Xinhua News Agency, the first image of the moon’s far side taken by China’s Chang’e-4 probe. A Chinese spacecraft on Thursday, Jan. 3, made the first-ever landing on the far side of the moon, state media said. The lunar explorer Chang’e 4 touched down at 10:26 a.m., China Central Television said in a brief announcement at the top of its noon news broadcast.
AP January 3, 2019
BEIJING — China’s burgeoning space program
achieved a lunar milestone on Thursday: landing a probe on the mysterious and
misnamed “dark” side of the moon.
Exploring
the cosmos from that far side of the moon, which people can’t see from Earth,
could eventually help scientists learn more about the early days of the solar
system and maybe even the birth of the universe’s first stars.
Three
nations — the United States, the former Soviet Union and more recently China —
all have sent spacecraft to the side of the moon that faces Earth, but this
landing is the first on the far side. That side has been observed many times
from lunar orbit, but never up close.
The
China National Space Administration said the 10:26 a.m. touchdown of the
Chang’e 4 craft has “opened up a new chapter in human lunar exploration.”
A
photo taken at 11:40 a.m. and sent back by Chang’e 4 shows a small crater and a
barren surface that appears to be illuminated by a light from the lunar
explorer. Its name comes from that of a Chinese goddess who, according to
legend, has lived on the moon for millennia.
One
challenge of sending a probe to the moon’s far side is communicating with it
from Earth, so China launched a relay satellite in May to enable Chang’e 4 to
send back information.
The
mission highlights China’s growing ambitions to rival the U.S., Russia and
Europe in space, and more broadly, to cement its position as a regional and
global power.
“The
space dream is part of the dream to make China stronger,” President Xi Jinping
said after becoming the country’s leader in 2013.
Chinese
media and officials hailed the Dec. 8 launch of Chang’e 4 as one of the
nation’s major achievements in 2018.
The
public was kept in suspense about the landing itself for more than an hour
after it occurred, with state broadcaster CCTV announcing it at the top of the
noon news. By that time, speculation already had begun spreading on social
media in China and overseas.
“On
the whole, China’s space technology still lags behind the West, but with the
landing on the far side of the moon, we have raced to the front,” said Hou
Xiyun, a professor at Nanjing University’s school of astronomy and space
science.
He
added that China has Mars, Jupiter and asteroids in its sights: “There’s no
doubt that our nation will go farther and farther.”
The
landing was “a big deal” because it used an engineering technique of the
spacecraft itself choosing a safe place to touch down in treacherous terrain,
something called autonomous hazard avoidance, said Purdue University lunar and
planetary scientist Jay Melosh.
He
recalled mentioning the idea of such a technique for an unfunded NASA lunar
mission about eight years ago, only to be told it wasn’t doable at the time.
“The
moon is more challenging to land on than Mars,” Melosh said. “On Mars, you can pick
out smooth areas.”
In
2013, the predecessor spacecraft Chang’e 3 made the first moon landing since
the former Soviet Union’s Luna 24 in 1976. The United States is the only
country to successfully send astronauts to the moon — 2019 will mark the 50th anniversary
of the Apollo 11 lunar landing — although China is considering a crewed mission
too.
For
now, it plans to send a Chang’e 5 probe to the moon next year and have it
return to Earth with samples — also not done since the Soviet mission in 1976.
The
moon’s far side is sometimes called the “dark side” in popular culture because
it is always unseen from Earth and is relatively unknown, not because it lacks
sunlight.
Chang’e
4, a combined lander and rover, will make astronomical observations and probe the
composition of the soil.
The
spacecraft landed in the South Pole-Aitken basin, the oldest known impact zone.
Scientists want to know how old — somewhere between 3.9 billion and 4.4 billion
years old — to better understand a period in the solar system’s history called
the late heavy bombardment. That’s when space rocks were careening off each
other and crashing into moons and planets, including Earth. Knowing the age and
chemical composition of this crash zone would help understand Earth’s ancient
history better, said Purdue’s Melosh.
2.
All necessary
means': Xi Jinping reserves right to use force against Taiwan
Chinese leader calls for reunification and says independence
would be a ‘disaster’
The Guardian 2 Jan 2019
Taiwan’s
unification with China is inevitable, Xi Jinping has said as he warned that
Beijing reserved the right to use military force to bring it into the fold.
Speaking
in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on the 40th anniversary of a key
cross-strait policy statement, the Chinese president described reunification
with Taiwan as unavoidable.
“Reunification
is the historical trend and it is the right path,” Xi said. “Taiwan’s
independence is a reversal of history and a dead-end road.”
All
people in Taiwan must “clearly recognise that Taiwan’s independence would only
bring profound disaster to Taiwan”, he said.
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Taiwan,
which has never been under the Chinese Communist party’s control, is China’s
most sensitive issue and is claimed by Beijing as its sacred territory.
Xi
has stepped up pressure on the democratically governed island since Tsai
Ing-wen, of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive party, became president
in 2016.
“We
make no promise to renounce the use of force and reserve the option of taking
all necessary means,” Xi said, adding that the issue was an internal one and
that China would permit “no external interference”.
“We
are willing to create broad space for peaceful reunification, but will leave no
room for any form of separatist activities,” he said.
Xi’s
speech was conciliatory in parts, echoing China’s 1979 “message to compatriots
in Taiwan”, which eventually led to a thaw in relations between the two sides.
Chinese
nationalists fled to Taiwan in 1949 and set up a rival government. In the 1990s
Taiwan democratised, and it is often held up as an example of democratic
reforms.
Xi
promised that Beijing would respect Taiwanese citizens’ private assets, their
beliefs, freedom to practise religion and other “legitimate rights”, an
arrangement similar to the “one country, two systems” model under which Hong
Kong is governed.
“After
peaceful reunification, Taiwan will have lasting peace and the people will
enjoy good and prosperous lives. With the great motherland’s support, Taiwan
compatriots’ welfare will be even better, their development space will be even
greater,” Xi said.
Xi
said China was willing to talk with any party in Taiwan to push the political
process – stalled by China since Tsai took office – as long as they accepted
the principle of “one China”. That policy maintains that Taiwan is part of
China.
In
response to Xi’s speech on Wednesday, Tsai rejected the possibility of such an
arrangement. “I call on China to bravely take step towards democracy so they
can truly understand the people of Taiwan,” she posted on Twitter.
A
day before the address, Tsai said the two countries “must handle our
differences peacefully and as equals”.
“I
am calling on China that it must face the reality of the existence of the
Republic of China (Taiwan),” she said, using Taiwan’s formal name. Beijing
“must respect the commitment of the 23 million people of Taiwan to freedom and
democracy”, she added.
Beijing
has refused official communication with Tsai’s administration because of her
refusal to agree with the One China policy.
3.
Samsung in 2019: Get ready for foldable phones, 5G
and more
Last
year's hardware was ho-hum, but Samsung's got plenty brewing to wow us this
year. And it all kicks in next week at CES.
CNET JANUARY 4, 2019
Samsung's
phones last year weren't quite what you'd call earthshaking.
Its Galaxy S9, S9 Plus and Note 9 didn't have many
noticeable changes from 2017's Galaxy S8, S8 Plus and Note 8. Sure, they had faster
processors and other souped-up components. But they kept the same design,
something that reportedly has hurt demand for the
smartphones.
After
all, why buy the new, pricier devices when the previous year's models are
nearly as good? That's been the problem for Samsung and other handset makers,
who tend to save major updates for every other year, if then. It's one
reason Apple and Samsung handset sales are
slowing and the global smartphone market is said to be in recession. We're all holding onto
our phones longer than before, and it's tougher for smartphone makers to
produce big, flashy innovations.
For Samsung in 2019, that's going to change.
New
components from its own operations, Qualcomm and others will enable some of the
biggest innovations in phones we'll have seen in years. That includes ultrafast
5G connectivity and truly flexible, foldable displays. No longer just a black,
rectangular slab of glass, smartphones this year and next could be much
different from anything we've used before. We may actually get excited about
phones again.
"2019
is really going to be a breakout year for Samsung," Technalysis Research
analyst Bob O'Donnell said. "It puts them in a very unique position as
really being seen as the technology leader."
Samsung's
big year starts next week at CES in Las Vegas.
The
company isn't expected to have mobile news at the show but instead will focus
on its TVs and home appliances. It's the following month that will likely mark
the debut of Samsung's next flagship phone, the Galaxy S10. And coming later will
be its foldable phone, dubbed the Galaxy X or Galaxy F.
Samsung
declined to comment.
Galaxy S10
Next
year's flagship phone from Samsung may not actually be its flashiest device
(that's probably going to be the foldable gadget), but it's expected to offer
plenty of big changes. That's important, since the Galaxy S10 is the phone most
Android users ready to upgrade will consider.
First
up for the Galaxy S10 is 5G, the new flavor of mobile tech that will significantly
boost the speed, coverage and responsiveness of wireless networks. It promises
to make phones upload and download data 10 to 100 times faster than with
today's typical 4G LTE network. Movies could be downloaded in seconds,
rather than minutes. 5G networks will roll out in the US and around the world
in the coming months, starting with smaller cities before making their way to
major metropolises and even rural areas.
Samsung
has said it will introduce a 5G phone for Verizon, AT&T and other
wireless providers in the first half of 2019. It's believed one version of the
Galaxy S10 will come with 5G connectivity, though it's likely Samsung won't
offer 5G on all its phones. 5G components are expensive and the service isn't
yet in all markets. That means the 5G variant will likely be pricey.
Another
likely major feature in the Galaxy S10 is an in-screen fingerprint reader.
Samsung is expected to use the Qualcomm
Snapdragon 855 processor, the first chip that supports Qualcomm's 3D Sonic
Sensor, an ultrasonic fingerprint readerthat's embedded right
into the display itself.
That
means Samsung fingerprint readers could return to the front screen, instead of
next to a phone's camera lenses on the back -- something consumers complained
about. With that 3D Sonic Sensor, Samsung can still offer a display that
stretches across the entire front. It's expected to be much more secure
than Samsung's Face Unlock technology.
Those
two features alone are likely enough to woo many smartphone buyers who've been
waiting on the sidelines.
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