On October 31, 2009, Qian Xuesen, the founder of my country's aerospace industry, passed away. Recently, the reporter revisited the Qian Xuesen Library at Shanghai Jiaotong University . Looking through the letters and articles Qian Xuesen wrote during his lifetime, he found that after making the scientific research contribution of " two bombs and one satellite ", Qian Xuesen's learning, thinking and research was constantly: he wrote a letter to suggest the development of " electric vehicle ", translate virtual reality into " spiritual realm ", and even boldly proposed that "the era of space navigation that humans desire has truly begun", and many scientific expectations are gradually becoming a reality today.
New energy vehicles
New energy vehicles are now traveling through the streets and alleys, and the industrial development is in full swing. As early as 30 years ago, Qian Xuesen wrote a letter to the country to suggest: make up his mind to build electric vehicles.
Both gasoline and diesel are non-renewable natural resources. Qian Xuesen believes that environmental protection will be a very important issue in the 21st century. In 1992, Qian Xuesen wrote a letter to suggest the development of new energy vehicle .
On August 22, 1992, Qian Xuesen wrote a letter to discuss the automobile industry. Photo provided by Qian Xuesen Library
The letter said, "Under this situation, we should never wait anymore. We should immediately formulate a car plan for battery energy, catch up, and strive to get behind."
Qian Xuesen also analyzed the mileage of hydride -nickel battery cars based on the current situation of the battery industry at that time. After charging once, "it can reach 250 to 300 kilometers, which can be practical."
In 1993, Qian Xuesen once again proposed, "Civil cars must be electrified and batteries must be used. In '863', we have broken through hydride, nickel electrode batteries, and are under development. Then why not immediately make up our minds to build electric vehicles and skip the stage of gasoline cars?"
1993, Qian Xuesen mentioned new energy vehicles again in his letter. Photo provided by Qian Xuesen Library
virtual reality
VR technology that is virtual reality technology is now well-known. As early as more than 30 years ago, Qian Xuesen had paid attention to VR technology and named VR "Spiritual Realm".
On November 27, 1990, Qian Xuesen translated VR into "spiritual realm", and also explained that the translation is "Chinese flavor is very strong".
On November 27, 1990, Qian Xuesen translated VR into "spiritual realm" in his letter. Photo provided by Qian Xuesen Library
On June 18, 1998, 87-year-old Qian Xuesen wrote a short essay "Using the "spiritual realm" is seeking truth from facts", which reads: "Our traditional culture happens to have a word 'spiritual realm' that expresses this situation; this is better than 'faith' because this state is virtual, not real."
On June 18, 1998, Qian Xuesen wrote a short essay "Using the "spiritual realm" is seeking truth from facts". Photo provided by Qian Xuesen Library
Researchers at Qian Xuesen Library said that since the 1980s, Qian Xuesen has been paying attention to the field of artificial intelligence . Since the 1990s, he has been concerned about the research progress of VR technology based on the research of artificial intelligence. His views in the field of artificial intelligence can be summarized as " human-computer combined with and focusing on people."
In a system study discussion class in 1990, Qian Xuesen reminded the researchers who were engaged in artificial intelligence that they were dealing with some very simple problems and could not say that they were intelligent. "The way to solve this problem is the combination of humans and machines."
Quantum information
1998, my country's Quantum Optics pioneer of quantum information research and quantum information Guo Guangcan planned to organize "Quantum Communication and Quantum Computing "Xiangshan Science Conference . At that time, as an emerging discipline, there were few researchers in China for quantum information .
Guo Guangcan immediately took a pen and wrote a letter to Qian Xuesen, sincerely inviting him to preside over the Xiangshan Science Conference. Not long after, he received a reply from Qian Xuesen.
is a screenshot of the reply message. Photo provided by University of Science and Technology of China
The letter reads: "I agree with what you said that our country should organize national forces to overcome technical problems in quantum information systems." "This matter is related to national affairs", and also expressed his views on how to "organize national forces".
Finally, due to age and physical reasons, Qian Xuesen failed to attend the meeting that year.But now, as Qian Xuesen said, the national strength has been organized, and generations of Chinese scientists have continued to penetrate the quantum "no man's land".
Since the 21st century, China's quantum research has achieved many major original results: many times, the world's record of quantum entanglement quantity, the world's first quantum science experiment, satellite , quantum microscope, quantum computing prototype...
Qian Xuesen said in an article titled "On the Prospects of Space Navigation and Considering Agricultural Industrialization from a Chemical Point", "I want to propose such a task to physicists with the spirit of mission-led discipline: create ultra-high-energy fuel that can release energy equivalent to one-square-static mass, and propose rocket design principles that use this ultra-high-energy fuel." Go to another star and discover a new solar system...
These bold "prophecies" are still to be "unveiled" by more scientists!
Source: Xinhua News Agency
Process Editor: tf028
