Source: www.china.org.cn/china/2016-02/22/content_37842866.htm
By Wu Jin


The "Tianqin" program, China's domestic gravitational wave research project initiated by Sun Yat-sen University has attracted considerable attention since the discovery of gravitational waves by U.S. scientists.

The Guangdong-based university revealed its itinerary for the exploration of gravitational waves on Feb. 21 at a symposium focusing on its "Tianqin" program that is expected to be completed in 15 to 20 years.

It involves the launch of three synchronized satellites in the form of an equilateral triangle to detect and observe gravitational waves.

As the program requires the precise placing of the three satellites in orbit, the university will first use lasers to establish the distance of the Moon and stars in deep space in order to ensure precise satellite positioning within millimeters. Meanwhile, based on the tests of the equivalence principle in space and the gravity satellites of the next generation, the project will ultimately reach its goal to detect gravitational waves in space.

Luo Jun, president of Sun Yat-sen University said, compared to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), "Tianqin" will proceed with the assistance of optics to sustainably detect the continuous gravitational wave in low frequency, which is different from the detection of the explosive short-term wave by LIGO.

In addition to its fundamental service to theoretical sciences, the critical technologies of the "Tianqin" program can also be applied to a number of practical fields, such as, the precise detection of the earth's gravity field to provide a better understanding of the present and changing landscape of the Earth as well as its water and mineral resources.

It can also precisely measure the distance as large as those between the two satellites and as minor as that of the atomic scale, said Luo.

As a program initiated and headed by Sun Yat-sen University, a number of key researchers from Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and prominent professors from Germany, Italy and France expressed their intention to be partners of the "Tianqin" program in addition to national universities and institutes. Besides, several professors from Moscow have already joined.