PEOPLE & POINTS
CHINA SKY EYE ENGINEER
The world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope was put into operation on January 11, after a three-year trial.
The chief engineer of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), Jiang Peng, a doctorate from the Institute of Mechanics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, joined the FAST team in 2009.
He was responsible for the cable system. After multiple experiments and failures, the team worked out a solution. The 30-ton feed cabin, the core part of FAST, was finally hoisted up with six cables from six concrete towers on the surrounding hills. It was one of the three major technological breakthroughs to get FAST up.
The single-dish telescope has a half-a-kilometer diameter and a receiving area
