News Plus慢速英语:中国启动国家重点研发计划 研发计量神器护航重大航天工程

This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Here is the news.
China has begun a national key research and development plan to streamline numerous state-funded scientific and technological programs.
The plan focuses on research in fields vital to the country's development and people's well-being. The research fields cover agriculture, energy, the environment and health, as well as strategic fields key to industrial competitiveness, innovation and national security.
The plan now covers 59 specific projects. It merges several prominent state sci-tech programs focused on key fields including biotechnology, space, information and energy.
Breakthroughs of the programs included supercomputer Tianhe-1, manned deep-sea research submarine Jiaolong, and super hybrid rice.
The plan aims to address low efficiency resulting from redundant programs. More than 100 projects will be merged into five plans, namely, natural science, major sci-tech, key research and development plan, technical innovation and the sci-tech human resources.
The national key research and development plan is the first to be started.

This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Chinese scientists have developed a system to measure the leak rate for a vacuum environment which will be used in the country's third step moon exploration program.
The measurement system will help scientists work out a better way to preserve samples from the moon, which are stored in a vacuum capsule, increasing the accuracy of research.
The third step of the lunar exploration project involves taking samples from the surface of the moon and bringing them back to earth.
The samples will be packed in a vacuum environment. The accuracy of measuring the finest leak in a vacuum capsule will have direct impact on the research result of the samples.
The system will ensure a similar vacuum environment as found on the moon. It will also make sure that the two kilograms of samples remain uncontaminated on their way back to earth, preventing them from being affected by any kinds of environment changes, including extremely high or low temperatures.
China has a three-step moon exploration project, namely, orbiting, landing and returning from the moon. Chang'e-5 lunar probe is expected to be launched around 2017 to finish the last chapter of the project.