Jin Shengzhen, a leading astronomer who leads the ambitious project, said Tuesday in an exclusive interview with Xinhua, "Our telescope, with the highest capability in optical resolution, will collect the most comprehensive solar scientific data for the earth."
The SST, with a couple of one meter-caliber main optical telescopes, will be carried into the 730 km-high sun synchronous orbit.
The two-ton advanced system, including two main optical telescopes, X-ray telescopes, a wide-band spectrograph, a helium spectrum telescope and a radio spectrograph, are designed to work three years in space after the launch.
The satellite-like telescope, five meters in length, two meters in width and two meters in height, cost 80 million yuan (9.66 million US dollars) to build.
"The sophisticated orbiter will scan a round size, with a diameter of 70 kilometers, on the solar surface," said Jin, principal investigator with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) National Astronomical Observatories, adding that the SST's resolution capability is ten times that of the on-duty US solar telescope, SOHO.
Satellite-bound high-performance computers, with a total of 50 central processing units, can transmit data at a speed of 100 mega-bytes per second from space to a ground station located in Miyun, in the northeastern suburbs of Beijing.
The SST will be used to study the solar magnetic field, fine structures of the sun surface, the energy accumulation and release of solar flares and sun-earth interaction, Jin said.
As the star nearest to the earth, the sun is the only source of light and heat for the earth. Scientists regard solar research as the key to unraveling the evolution of the solar system and even the whole cosmos.
Before building space telescopes, global astronomers gazed at the sun via earth surface-based telescopes. However, observation from the earth is affected by the atmosphere, which prevents obtained scientific data from full accuracy.
Developed countries have sent more than 130 spacecraft for solar observation, 20 out of which are still circling in space.
Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom are now jointly developing their own solar telescope, coded as SOLAR-B. With a diameter of 0.5 meters, SOLAR-B has half the capability in optical resolution than that of the China-made telescope.
William Livingston, a leading astronomer of the US National Solar Observatory, commented that the Chinese telescope is "unique" and "significant to push forward the edges of solar physical research."
Astronomers estimate the investment in the project by 2008 at one billion yuan. They say, however, it is worthy for improving technologies in remote sensing, global positioning and satellite data processing in China.
Sun Jiadong, a CAS academician who is also an academician of the International Academy of Astronautics, said, "China's first SST will lead others in the early decades of the 21st century."
