On September 19, 2017, a workshop was held at the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as NSSC), dedicated to the discussion of proposal of the International Meridian Circle Program (IMCP), a potential Big Science Project. Members of the proposal team attended the workshop, who come from 12 institutions involved with the IMCP, including NSSC, the NO. 22 Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, Wuhan University etc. More than 40 experts and scholars in the field of space science attended the meeting, including Academician TU Chuanyi, Academician LYU Daren, Academician WEI Fengsi etc.

 

The meeting was co-chaired by Prof. WANG Chi, Deputy Director General of NSSC, and Prof. WU Jian, Director of the NO. 22 Research Institute who are jointly steering the IMCP proposal. Prof. WANG Chi briefly introduced the background and preliminary work of the IMCP, which was followed by the work report by Dr. FAN Quanlin, head of the mission study division of NSSC, with topics on the proposal preparation of the IMCP.

 

At the meeting, the experts discussed intensively the IMCP proposal and stressed the importance to seize the opportunity, with the support from the Beijing municipal government, to make IMCP a demonstration project of the Big Science Project where China takes the leading role. The meeting also advised the next step to materialize the technical feasibility and economic feasibility as laid out in the proposal.

 

The IMCP is a proposed international big science project, which is based on the Chinese Meridian Project. The IMCP connects the 120°E and 60°W, the only meridian circle that has the most continental coverage. Since initiated in 2011, a number of national institutions and international organizations have joined the IMCP, including the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE), MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI), International Living With a Star program (ILWS) etc. The preparation of the IMCP proposal is led by the Mission Study Division, with the joint effort from the International Cooperation Office and the Finance and Asset Division etc.