Recently, the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences sent a letter to Southeast University, expressing their sincere gratitude for the important contributions SEU faculties had made to the building and launch of the FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope), which is the world’s largest filled-aperture radio telescope and nicknamed “The Eye of Heaven of China” .
The letter wrote :“Professor Guo Zhengxing and Professor Luo Bin engaged in the pre-research of the cable net of the FAST project , and participated in the development of high-performance cable to help solve the technical problems of long-span cable installation.Their work laid a solid foundation for the project. NOAC wants to express our sincere gratitude to the Southeast University for its contribution to the FAST project and sincerely hopes that your organization will continue to support and help us!”
Testing and commissioning of FAST, which was located in Pingtang County, Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, began with first light on 25 September 2016. The spherical radio telescope is the world's largest single-caliber and the most sensitive radio telescope, with China's own intellectual property rights. People call it China’s Eye of Heaven . Its opening is of great importance for China to achieve a major breakthrough in the forefront of science and to accelerate innovation and development.
FAST’s cable net is not only the most precise one in the world with the largest span, but also the world's first cable net which has winches locating underneath,making it an active surface, to pull on joints between panels. Professor Guo Zhengxing and Professor Luo Bin of the School of Civil Engineering SEU,were responsible for the construction phase of FAST’s supporting structure of the reflector, solved a number of key technical problems and made important contributions to the successful completion of FAST.
