Scientists call for deeper international space science cooperation

Scientists are exchanging views on the latest progress, major achievements and frontier trends of space science at the ongoing 3rd China Space Science Assembly in Huzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, calling for deeper international cooperation in space science.

The world is becoming more and more complex, and cooperation is now even more necessary than ever, Jean-Jacques Dordain, former director-general of the European Space Agency (ESA), said at the assembly.

We have no alternative to cooperation, because we are living on one planet, meaning that we have only one common future, he said.

Dordain believes that cooperation in space is not only necessary, but also more and more possible, adding that cooperation is based on mutual interest, real understanding and trust.

The China-Europe joint space mission, Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE), is scheduled to enter space in 2025, said Wang Chi, director of the National Space Science Centre (NSSC) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), at the assembly.

SMILE is a collaborative science mission between the CAS and ESA to build a deeper understanding of the Sun-Earth link by observing the dynamic interaction between the solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere.

Space science is about discovering the natural laws of space, which is the common knowledge of humankind, Wu Ji, chairman of the Chinese Society of Space Research (CSSR), said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua at the assembly.

International cooperation in space science can lead to higher efficiency, richer results and maximized scientific output, which will benefit all participating countries, Wu said.

China has been actively promoting international cooperation in space science, and has shared the data from scientific satellites, such as the Gravitational Wave High-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM) and the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S), with the world, Wu said.

Sun Yueqiang, a researcher at the NSSC, who has led the establishment of the International Laboratory on Climate and Atmosphere Research with Occultation & Reflectometry Observing Systems, is also attending the assembly.

Her team cooperated with the University of Graz in Austria and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) to jointly create a global shared Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) remote sensing climate database, develop new GNSS remote sensing technology, and promote the development of GNSS meteorology.

The assembly, being held by the CSSR, the Zhejiang Association for Science and Technology, and the Huzhou City government from Oct. 14 to 17, has attracted more than 1,000 experts and scholars from the country's scientific research institutes, universities and enterprises.