This year, Jiang Peng, executive deputy director and chief engineer of the Operation and Development Center of China Sky Eye (FAST), is 43 years old, Sun Jinghai, director of the Measurement and Control Engineering Department, is 38 years old, and Yao Rui, the leader of the mechanical team, is 37 years old...
In order to include themselves in the ranks of "young people", they went through the age definition of "youth" at home and abroad, and finally Jiang Peng smiled and said: "Found!" The World Health Organization says that 16 to 44 years old is considered a youth! ”
When they first joined the FAST team, they never struggled with this problem, at that time, Jiang Peng was 31 years old, Sun Jinghai was 22 years old, Yao Rui was 22 years old...
Today, FAST is built, and they are about to step out of the category of "young people", but they are not distressed, because their youth has been written into history, because the new generation is also like them and their predecessors, continue to fight for China's scientific and technological cause.
The bitterness and sweetness of the green onion years
Those who participated in the construction of the telescope earlier often reminisced with relish more than a decade ago. Yu Dongjun, head of the Surveying Team of the Measurement and Control Engineering Department of fast operation and development center, is one of them.
In the summer of 2009, after graduating from Yu Dongjun, he joined the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and was sent to the FAST site three months later. The first time on a business trip, the first time to take a plane, the first time to Go to Guizhou... All kinds of beautiful imaginations appear repeatedly in Dongjun's mind. However, reality poured cold water on him: at that time, there was no mobile phone signal in the big nest, eating and living in a temporary board room, and enduring various mosquito bites.
Compared with the simple living conditions, the technical challenge is the most difficult.
Young scientific and technological workers stay in the mountains all year round, and sometimes they are confused about the future (Courtesy of the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences)
In 2009, Dr. Peng Jiang graduated. A job posting accidentally appeared in front of him: "A 500-meter diameter cable net can be deformed, and the parabolic surface can be formed in different parts of it, and the control accuracy is required to reach the millimeter level..." "500 meters", "deformation" and "millimeter level", which makes Jiang Peng feel "incredible". Curious, he joined the FAST engineering project construction team. However, he soon discovered that engineering was struggling.
At that time, a major "pain point" was the problem of so fatigue. FAST is a huge radio telescope, and if you compare it to a pot full of water, it is enough for everyone in the world to drink for a day. What kind of rope net can support this cauldron for 30 years without breaking and without error?
At that time, Jiang Peng and others bought ten steel cables from well-known manufacturers on the market, however, in the fatigue experiment, all the steel cables failed. Word quickly spread in the astronomical circles, and many people said that FAST was going to be finished. Under pressure, Jiang Peng and others spent two years studying day and night, experiencing nearly a hundred failures, and finally developed a finished steel cable structure suitable for FAST like a dream.
Along the way, stumbling, but everyone enjoys it, "often encounter the desperate situation of mountains and rivers and doubts, and you can also enjoy the joy of another village with dark flowers and flowers." Pan Gaofeng, director of the Integrated Management Department of fast operations and development centers, said.
Those days were bitter, but when I look back, they all turned sweet. Li Hui, director of the Structural and Mechanical Engineering Department of FAST Operation and Development Center, commented on the significance of those days to himself: "Through hard work, I have witnessed the growth of FAST, and such a large-scale project has provided me with the opportunity to enrich my own experience, which is undoubtedly an opportunity to enrich my own experience, which is undoubtedly an asset and greatly expands my horizons. ”
On September 22, 2009, Jiang Peng and colleagues installed a reflective panel in Miyun for experiments (courtesy of the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences)
"Difficulty" eventually becomes "bright spot"
The backbone of FAST, when they first joined the team, were only in their twenties and thirties. Under the trust and care of the older generation of scientists, their vigor and creativity have made FAST turn over again and again.
At the beginning of the commissioning of the telescope, Sun Jinghai encountered a problem: the purchased high-voltage filter custom products had a short life and the reliability did not meet the demand, because there was no special demand like FAST in the world. If the purchased product is used, the equipment is at risk of failure or even explosion; if it is not used, the quality of the telescope observation is not guaranteed. What to do?
After pondering for a while, Sun Jinghai found that the problem was in the selection and manufacturing process of components. So, he proposed a new research and development plan, starting with components. However, Sun Jinghai is neither from a professional electrical and electronics class nor has design experience, and the solution he proposed has not been universally recognized. Fortunately, seniors, including Fast chief scientist and chief engineer Nan Rendong, supported him to continue to work.
Therefore, Sun Jinghai and his colleagues learned from scratch. Design methods in books are not easy to use, so they create new methods. Through several rounds of testing and improvement, the performance and reliability of the product have been improved. In the debugging stage, they firmly used the products they designed and developed to achieve the effects required for the project.
Yao Rui also encountered a similar incident. During the construction of the telescope, she was mainly responsible for the development of the feeder module. The feeder cabin is equivalent to the pupil of the celestial eye and plays a focusing role. In the construction stage, in order to solve the problem of overweight of the feeder cabin, Yao Rui and others abandoned the design scheme of the feeder cabin for many years, boldly grouped the feeder according to observation, and turned the cylinder of the feeder chamber into a "diamond triangle".
Yao Rui hesitantly handed the new design plan to Nan Rendong: "Teacher Nan, will this design not look good?" Nan Rendong read the plan, and after a little silence, said: "It is not ugly." To this day, Yao Rui does not know whether Nan Rendong really likes the new shape of the feeder cabin, but his support allows this creative plan to finally be realized.
Looking back on the past, everyone's heart is full of emotions. "When our generation takes over fast work, we must do our part to make a light." Qian Lei, head of the scientific observation team of the Ministry of Scientific Observation and Data, said. Gan Hengqian, director of the Electronic and Electrical Engineering Department of FAST Operation and Development Center, also sighed: "The older generation of scientific research workers represented by Nan Rendong have devoted themselves to research and independent innovation, which has lasted for more than 20 years and overcome many construction technical problems; the young generation of scientific and technological workers should continue to carry forward this spirit, maintain fast operation, and give back to the society with high-quality observation data and major scientific achievements." ”
On-site engineers are stationed on duty at the site all year round, and the family takes their children to visit the class (photo provided by the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences)
A new breath in the big nest
On January 11, 2020, FAST passed the national acceptance and officially opened for domestic operation. Another new generation of scientific and technological workers came here to help FAST move towards the goal of "early results, more results, good results, and great results".
In 2012, Sun Chun joined FAST in her early 20s, and now, as an engineer, her main job is to arrange reasonable observation time for each project. Every second of observation time in telescopes is precious, and there are thousands of sources waiting to be observed every day. Not wasting observation time is the main principle of their observation plan. Every day, Sun Chun has to check the plans one by one, and once the observation time conflicts between the two sources with special requirements, she must patiently coordinate and line up each source to be observed according to the rules.
In order to achieve efficient arrangement of observation tasks, in early 2020, Sun Chun participated in the development of the observation project management system. From March 31, 2021, FAST was officially opened to global scientists, and she participated in the development of the English and Observation Project Application Review System to provide one-stop service for global scientists to apply, create, arrange and execute, ensuring that FAST can produce more results.
Like Sun Chun, engineer Huang Menglin is also stationed at FAST to provide data services for astronomers. In 2014, she came here to take charge of the construction and operation and maintenance of the data center. At that time, FAST did not have a data center. Step by step, they carry out requirements analysis, bidding, shelf installation, environment configuration, service provisioning, and post-operation and maintenance work. Then, there were more computer rooms, more equipment, and more and more personnel in the data center... Step by step to today, Huang Menglin is full and confident.
Every time he was so busy that he was about to collapse, Huang Menglin would always look up at the window. Next to the door of the complex, a statue of Nam Ren Dong stands. Looking at the statue of Nan Rendong, she will remember the bits and pieces of getting along with him, and thus hear her inner voice: "If you can contribute your modest efforts to a scientific and technological power, this life will be worth it!" ”
All young people who have grown up in the eyes of China have their big ideals and "careful thinking". As Jiang Peng said: "We can't forget the original intention is to make a telescope that is easy to use, our vision for the future is to hope that the latecomers will use this equipment well, we must accept the reality that we will eventually be the past tense, if we still have a little luxury, it is the hope that it will not be forgotten." (Ni Sijie)
After the commissioning team went through hardships, the joint observation of the telescope was finally realized, and the members took photos to commemorate (courtesy of the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences)
Source: China Science Daily