In combined efforts, China and Europe have set up mission that attempts to help geologists find more oil on earth. The duo will be launching crude oil into space through an experiment that will measure how oil molecules move under intense pressure.
The scientists will be using a retrievable scientific research satellite named SJ-10 to study the microgravity and space life science. Reports have it that it will take the spacecraft carrying the experiment 12 days to orbit around Earth before it can make its way back to land.
But while in space the bullet-shaped probe, which rumbled into the air on the back of a Long March 2-D rocket will house 19 experiments and which were selected from a pool of over 200 applicants. They includes space radiation effect, microgravity fluid physics, microgravity biological effect and microgravity combustion among others.
There is a particular whose interest will be to study the early-stage development of mouse embryos in microgravity and it is expected to shed more light on human reproduction in space.
The experiments are aimed at helping scientists build up their understanding of oil reservoirs buried kilometers underground in addition to enhancing energy efficiency and cut emission.
It is the first time that experiments are being conducted on SJ-10 according to chief scientist of the SJ-10 mission, Hu Wenrui whose optimism is that they will help in providing a breakthrough into academic research. The preparation work of the spacecraft which will be manned by two people chosen from 200 candidates has taken close to 10 years.
The SJ-10 comes second in a list of four other scientific satellites under a CAS space program. Apparently, it is returnable unlike the other three and is also the 25th such retrievable satellite launched decades ago in China.
Well, it is just a matter of time before the partnership between China and EAS and China’s National Space Science Centre on the oil experiment can bore fruits. In any case, the two have been sharing science alongside other French and Chinese oil companies.
