Beijing: Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST having a reflector of the size of 30 football fields, is ready for a trial-run. The telescope, took about five years to build, and is expected to begin operations in September. It is aimed at observing deep space and is known as one of most visible project of China’s plans to transform into high-tech nation focussing on research in advanced science and technology moving away from cheap manufacturing.
About 300 people, including builders, experts, science fiction enthusiasts and reporters, witnessed the installation at a karst valley in Pingtang County in the southwestern province of Guizhou. Zheng Xiaonian, deputy head of the National Astronomical Observation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which built the telescope, told Scientists will now start debugging and trials of the telescope.