{"id":406591,"date":"2026-01-13T14:58:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T14:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/406591\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T14:58:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T14:58:19","slug":"why-chinese-space-station-is-studying-how-gravity-affects-battery-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/406591\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Chinese space station is studying how gravity affects battery performance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Led by only the second civilian the country has sent into space, China had started a series of experiments on board its Tiangong space station that could lead to the development of safer and more powerful space batteries, state media reported on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The tests on lithium-ion batteries run by Zhang Hongzhang, a professor at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, could help scientists better understand how gravity affects the workings of the batteries.<\/p>\n<p>The country\u2019s first civilian astronaut was an aerospace engineer and professor at Beihang University, <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/science\/article\/3222128\/chinas-first-civilian-astronaut-prepares-join-latest-space-mission?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Gui Haichao<\/a>, who went to the space station in 2023.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Zhang\u2019s research covers a variety of advanced batteries, including lithium-ion batteries, which are a key power source for space exploration thanks to their high energy density, light weight and reliability.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In an interview published a day before the launch in late October, Zhang told the official China Youth Daily that he applied at once after seeing a 2018 astronaut recruitment notice, which for the first time was aimed at flight engineers and specialist scientists as well as military pilots.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">His main task is to conduct experiments on the space station and communicate with ground researchers to maximise results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Led by only the second civilian the country has sent into space, China had started a series of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[21735,49,48,171431,171432,25436,66,118995,306,45636,171430],"class_list":{"0":"post-406591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-beihang-university","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-china-youth-daily","12":"tag-gui-haichao","13":"tag-lithium-ion-batteries","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-shenzhou-21-mission","16":"tag-space","17":"tag-tiangong-space-station","18":"tag-zhang-hongzhang"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}