Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST)

This book is a full-length reportage literary work. The author spent more than a year going deep into the front line of China FAST construction and interviewed on-the-spot groups of scientific researchers, project builders, local villagers, Party and government cadres, and other groups involved in the construction, creating the first panoramic, all-round record of FAST from the initial conception to the completion of the process so far. It reproduces the heroic deeds of the group of scientists represented by Nan Rendong, refines and displays the spirit of FAST of China, publicizes the heroes and exemplary characters and advanced models emerging from a hundred years of the Party’ s history, and embodies the outstanding achievements of China’ s scientific and technological undertakings in the centenary of the founding of the Party. As a record of the birth of the giant eye in the sky, it is a hymn to the era of serving the country with science and technology.

Meng Zemin, Buyi ethnicity, member of the Chinese Writers Association. His epresentative works include The Military Soul to Stay Between the Two Mountains, Black Blood in the Southern Sky, Look Back Has Been Far, Love Passes Away, Finish the Marriage, and so on. After 20 years of interviews, Black Blood in the Southern Sky is the first full-length reportage literature in China that describes the tragic history from the defense of Guilin in 1944 to the end of the Qiannan Incident in a panoramic way. Yang Zhengyong is a member of the Guizhou Writers’ Association. He is the author of a collection of cultural essays entitled Born in Pingtang and documentary literature entitled On the Road to Touch the Sky.

Preface • vii Introduction • 1 Chapter I Guizhou: The Selected Site for FAST • 5 I. Open for Operation • 6 II. A Crazy Plan • 8 III. 12 Years of Site Selection • 18 IV. Dedicated • 33 Chapter II Road Construction • 43 I. Twenty Years Ago • 44 II. Committed • 48 III. The Road That Connects • 53 Chapter III Completion of FAST • 61 I. Peng Bo: The Glorious Years • 61 II. Duan Baoyan: Make Big in Small • 77 III. Jing Fengshui: Breakthrough in Feed Support • 90 Chapter IV An Endless Pursuit • 107 I. Guardians of Electromagnetic Waves • 107 II. FAST Forged Them • 117 III. Happiness in Hardship • 119 IV. The Progress of FAST through Lens • 121 V. Dream Chasers • 125 Chapter V Look Deep into the Universe • 129 I. World-Awing • 131 II. Cosmic Exploration • 135 III. For the Development of China • 140 Chapter VI The Spirit Lasts • 147 I. Patriotic Dedication and Pursuit of Excellence • 147 II. True Scientific Spirit • 151 III. Carry the Torch Forward • 158 Chronicles of FAST • 171