By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-09-30 08:53:07 | Updated at 2024-09-30 11:33:09
3 hours ago
The Chinese University of Hong Kong has designed a satellite, the first funded by the local government, that will be able to gather data covering the city and neighbouring areas to pre-empt natural disasters and develop smart cities.
The satellite, funded by the city’s Innovation and Technology Commission and supported by the China National Space Administration, was launched from a sea platform off the coast of the mainland Chinese province of Shandong last week.
The university said on Monday that the spacecraft was designed to forecast natural disasters such as landslides and floods in the city, as well as to perform other functions to further scientific research for Hong Kong’s “sustainable development”.
Professor Kwan Mei-po, director of CUHK’s Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, highlighted how the project would allow Hong Kong to receive critical information more efficiently.
“In the past, when we needed to obtain data on certain incidents, we had to make requests to the China National Space Administration. It required more time and such data was not always available,” Kwan said.
