Schematic diagram of the Huairou-1 polar eye scientific satellite. Photo courtesy of interviewee
At the end of 2020, Xiong Shaolin at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
Photo courtesy of interviewee
【Endeavor】
I hope that students can be attentive, sensitive, and have a broad perspective, and communicate widely with teams in different fields, just as we thought of working with the Beidou satellite team. This way they can quickly connect all kinds of relevant information, maybe it will come in handy sometime.
Shaolin the bear
Chief scientist of the "Huairou-1" polar eye science satellite project and researcher of the Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
In science fiction movies, the universe is vast and serene. In fact, intense celestial activity often plays out in the depths of the universe: the birth, old age, illness and death of stars, the collision and fusion of galaxies... During this period, celestial bodies usually release huge amounts of energy and produce high-energy celestial explosions such as gravitational waves and gamma-ray bursts (gamma-ray bursts for short), providing important information for human exploration of the universe.
At the end of 2022, the first batch of scientific data generated by the mainland "Huairou-1" polar eye science satellite was officially released, including detailed observation data of 75 gamma-ray bursts, which strongly supported Chinese and foreign astronomers to carry out "multi-band, multi-messenger" joint observation and research on gamma-ray bursts. Xiong Shaolin, chief scientist of the "Huairou-1" polar eye science satellite project and researcher of the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Institute of High Energy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences), was named the "Most Beautiful Scientific and Technological Worker" in the field of space science in China in 2022 for his outstanding research achievements in related fields.
The first sight of gravitational waves left a regret
To this day, Xiong Shaolin is still very excited to recall the first observation of neutron stars and gravitational waves in 2017. "Previously, the gravitational waves I saw were all generated by the merger of black holes and did not emit light. That time, the merger of two neutron stars not only produced gravitational waves, but also emitted light. It can be said that this is the first time that humans have truly 'seen' gravitational waves. He said.
On August 17, 2017, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States captured for the first time gravitational wave signals from the merger of binary neutron stars. At the time of the event, only four X-ray and gamma-ray telescopes in the world had successfully detected the eruption region, one of which was the continent's first X-ray astronomical telescope, "Insight", which gave the strictest restrictions on the radiation properties of gamma-ray bursts in the megaelectron voltaic region accompanied by gravitational waves, and made important contributions to the comprehensive understanding of the physical mechanism of the gravitational wave event.
Xiong Shaolin's relationship with "Huiyan" dates back to 2004.
At that time, out of his love for basic physics, Xiong Shaolin, who majored in engineering physics at Tsinghua University, came to the Institute of High Energy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for graduate school. At that time, his mentor, Li Tibei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was carrying out pre-research work on "insight". As soon as Xiong Shaolin entered the institute, the research task of "Insight" was assigned to him.
"At that time, I had just transferred from engineering physics, and I was suddenly taking on such an important job, and my mind was blank." Xiong Shaolin recalled that to develop a scientific instrument, it should theoretically at least have been used, but the reality was that "I have never seen it."
Having never touched space telescope-related equipment, the development team decided to start with data. Xiong Shaolin told reporters that although he has not used a space telescope, the team members are very clear about what kind of scientific data the telescope should produce. "We can use the existing space telescope data abroad to go backwards and think about how the telescope can be designed to obtain such data." He said.
At that time, there were still some immature Xiong Shaolin who followed the teacher, senior brother and sister, and began to learn from drawing. "I do everything, and sometimes I need equipment to do experiments, so I go to Zhongguancun to buy it myself. Little by little, I also learned a lot of things. He recalled.
The original goal was not to observe gamma-ray bursts, and its original goal was to observe X-rays emitted by black holes and neutron stars in the Milky Way. Later, at the suggestion of Zhang Shuangnan, then chief scientist of the Huiyan satellite and director of the Key Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiong Shaolin's team began to evaluate whether Huiyan could be used to observe gamma-ray bursts.
"The analysis shows that it really works." Xiong Shaolin said he was surprised that his "discerning eye" could observe gamma-ray bursts, "At first we were inexperienced and did not think about gamma-ray burst observations."
However, because it was not born to observe gamma-ray bursts, the range of gamma-ray burst energies that the Eye satellite can observe is relatively limited, which also leads to the lack of more valid data in the first neutron star merger gravitational wave event.
"I was very sorry at the time. This also prompted us to make a satellite dedicated to the observation of gamma bursts, especially gravitational wave gamma bursts. Xiong Shaolin recalled.
Under the gravitational wave research boom that swept the astronomical community, the "Huairou-1" polar eye scientific satellite came into being.
"Standing guard and watching" for high-energy celestial explosions
The Huairou-1 polar eye scientific satellite is a "short, flat and fast" project: the project concept was proposed in 2016 and launched in 2020, and it took only 4 years from the concept to the operation in the sky. "That's a very fast pace for a space program." Xiong Shaolin said that the Huairou-1 polar eye science satellite project can be completed so quickly, thanks in large part to the flexible mechanism of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In view of the major opportunities in scientific research, the strategic leading science and technology project "Space Science (Phase II)" of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has established an opportunistic space project. "The Huairou-1 polar eye scientific satellite is an opportunistic project, which is aimed at sudden scientific opportunities, which can be quickly invested at a small cost, quickly seize opportunities, and obtain scientific outputs." Xiong Shaolin introduced that with the help of this mechanism, "Huairou No. 1" was able to avoid the lengthy "queue" and "cut the queue" to enter the engineering demonstration and development cycle.
The opportunity in Xiong Shaolin's mouth is the gravitational wave research boom that has been set off in the astronomical community in recent years. "At that time, we expected that the sensitivity of the LIGO detector would be greatly improved in 2020, which would bring strong support to gravitational wave research and was an important window of opportunity to detect and study gravitational wave electromagnetic counterparts, which we cannot miss." Xiong Shaolin said that the launch and operation of the "Huairou-1" polar eye scientific satellite has given the mainland a place in the field of gravitational wave and its electromagnetic counterpart detection.
In addition to directly observing the explosion of high-energy celestial bodies such as gravitational waves and gamma-ray bursts, another major task of the "Huairou-1" polar eye scientific satellite is to "stand guard and watch" for various types of high-energy celestial explosions. Once the satellite detects an eruption object, it immediately transmits the relevant information down to the ground, guiding the ground and other space astronomy observation equipment to quickly carry out follow-up observations.
How to transmit the "whistle" to the ground as quickly as possible has become a major problem faced by the "Huairou-1" polar eye scientific satellite. "Previous scientific satellites could only transmit data when they flew 'overhead' of the ground receiving station, but this was too long to wait for several hours to meet the satellite's need to quickly guide scientific observations." Mr. Xiong said he and other team members had been troubled by the problem for a long time.
The turnaround came by chance. Just when Xiong Shaolin was worried about the problem of data transmission, he inadvertently saw a news: "South China Sea fishermen use Beidou satellite short message service to send and receive information." This inspired him - "Can we also try to use Beidou satellites to achieve rapid data transmission?" ”
The idea is very bold, but whether it can be realized specifically, Xiong Shaolin has no bottom in his heart. "Beidou satellite's short message service was previously mainly for ground users, can scientific satellites fly so fast, can they be used?" He said.
But what Xiong Shaolin didn't expect was that after they proposed this idea to the Beidou satellite team, the two teams hit it off and immediately launched relevant research. In January 2021, the Huairou-1 polar eye science satellite successfully transmitted the gamma-ray burst observation alarm to the ground through the Beidou-3 satellite navigation system, which kicked off the application of Beidou navigation system services to space science and space exploration.
I hope that students can grind more on things
As soon as he talked about his profession, Xiong Shaolin's eyes lit up. Love is the main driving force that drove him to where he is today.
"It's important to choose a direction that interests you, so that even if you encounter difficulties, you will be willing to give it." Xiong Shaolin said.
For his students, Xiong Shaolin hopes that they can be attentive, sensitive, have a broad vision, and communicate widely with teams in different fields. "Just as we thought we could work with the Beidou satellite team, I hope that they can also be highly sensitive at all times and have a broad enough field of view so that they can quickly connect all kinds of relevant information, maybe it will come in handy at some time." He said.
Rather than meticulous guidance, Xiong Shaolin prefers to train students with specific tasks and let them grind more on things, just as he learned from the development of the Huairou and Huairou-1 polar science satellites. "I want every student to have something concrete to do, not exactly in their own field, and it doesn't hurt to do more." He said.
When asked how stressed his students were, Xiong Shaolin pointed to the ceiling. "Of course, they're working on data in the lab upstairs." Xiong Shaolin believes that "looking at the whole world, it is impossible to make excellent results without pressure. Great scientists must also grow out of stress. ”
With the efforts of Xiong Shaolin and his team, the "Huiyan" and "Huairou-1" polar eye scientific satellites have produced a series of important results, promoting China's high-energy space astronomy research to a higher level. (Intern reporter Du Peng)
Source: Science and Technology Daily