【推荐3】People of San Francisco and visitors now have a place to learn and study the largely forgotten history of Chinese workers who helped build the US’ first transcontinental (横贯大陆的) railroad.

The Chinese Railroad Workers History Center, near the southern entrance of San Francisco’s Chinatown, is expected to serve as a “gathering place” for people to learn about Chinese Americans’ heritage (遗产) in the US, according to the founder, Florence Fang, a Chinese community leader in the Bay Area. “The center’s purpose is to remember the Chinese railroad workers’ contribution to this country. The goal is to give voice to the voiceless, and the spirit is to remember the past and inspire the future,” said Fang.

The building of the Transcontinental Railroad, originally known as the Pacific Railroad, was completed on May 10, 1869．It was considered one of the most remarkable engineering achievements of the 19th century. The railroad greatly changed the nation as it not only expanded the American economy but also increased national confidence.

The Chinese workers made up more than 80 percent of the railroad workforce. “What is important to remember is the sweat and the tears and sometimes the lives of the Chinese workers who built the most treacherous, difficult part of the Transcontinental Railroad,” said California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, “Now it will go down in history along with so many other unbelievably important contributions of Chinese Americans.”

Kounalaki s and other elected officials in the state and the city joined community leaders on Wednesday at the center to commemorate the 154th anniversary of the completion of the railroad and pay tribute (致敬) to the Chinese workers.

“This center joins several other institutions in San Francisco, like the Chinese Historical Society and the Chinese Culture Center, to attract visitors and to teach Chinese American history and culture,” said Peskin, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

“It comes at a critical time for us. It comes as Chinatown and the home of San Francisco have experienced three very difficult years, Chinatown in particular, not only with the economic harm, but with the rise of Asian hate,” he said. “The center will help teach future generations and make San Francisco proud,” said Peskin. “It will help promote the economy of Chinatown.”

【推荐1】“Welcome to our new ‘classroom’!” said Chen Dong, one of the three astronauts of the Shenzhou XIV mission.

They were giving a science class 400 kilometers above Earth on Oct 12. It was the third space class from the Tiangong space station, but the first one from the Wentian lab module(实验舱) since its launch in July. The former two classes were held in the Tianhe core module(核心舱).

What does the new “classroom” look like? Chen, together with Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe, showed us around. “The beds in the Tianhe module are placed horizontally(横着), while our beds are kept upright,” said Liu. That means astronauts in the Wentian lab module need to sleep standing up! But as Liu explained, people don’t feel any difference because there’s no gravity(重力)in space. Astronauts can even sleep on the ceiling(天花板)or upside down!

The astronauts also showed their “space farm”, where lettuce, wheat, thale cress(拟南芥)and rice are grown. “Take a picture!” “Send the picture!” Through a voice-controlled camera, Chen already sent a picture of the thale cress to scientists on Earth. Then he used scissors to cut a sample. “I’ll put it into a fridge at -80 ℃ and later give it to scientists on Earth,” said Chen. Scientists will study how the environment of space affects the growth of plants.

“We hope in the near future, we can harvest the food grown on our own,” said Chen. “Maybe one day, we can grow food on the moon or even on Mars!”

【推荐2】Life as an astronaut has various unique attractions. This can include experiencing weightlessness and looking back at Earth as a pale blue dot. Food is not among them. Space travelers over the years have become used to certain foods such as freeze-dried ice cream and liquid salt and pepper. Now, the menu is set to be augmented, with the first space-grown lettuce (生菜) found to be as safe, nutritious and fresh as the Earth-grown variety.

Gioia Massa of NASA Kennedy Space Center is the lead scientist on the lettuce-growing project. She said that growing food in space could be wonderful for astronauts on missions lasting more than one month.   “If you store packaged food for a long time, not only will the flavour and nutritional quality decrease, but the vitamins will degrade. After eating such food, astronauts’ intake of nutrition is not ensured,” she said. “Besides, for them, there may also be psychological benefits of growing and looking after plants.

Lettuce has been grown in batches (分批) onboard the International Space Station (ISS). The vegetable production system is known as Veggie. It is composed of plant pillows (sealed units containing ceramic soil), LED lighting and a watering   system that allows astronauts to inject water through a tube. The lettuce crops grow undisturbed for 33 to 56 days before being harvested and eaten, or deep-frozen and returned to Earth for chemical and biological analysis.

The space-grown lettuces are similar in make-up to Earth-grown ones but they have higher levels of bacteria (细菌), possibly due to their growth in a warmer, more humid (潮湿的) and closed-air system. But they are not found to carry any harmful bacteria.

NASA is now enlarging the range of produce grown onboard the ISS. It will be quite some time before any vegetables can be transformed into a dish, however. “While we have nowhere to cook up there now, we can look forward to more things that taste fresh,” Massa explained.

【推荐3】Every April 24, China celebrates the Space Day to show the country’s achievements in space exploration. Now let’s look at some of China’s 2023 space missions (任务).

China has announced (公布) 3 manned space program missions. The Shenzhou-15 workers are now at China’s space station. They recently completed their 4th spacewalk and will return to Earth in June. As planned, the Shenzhou-16 and Shenzhou-17 manned spaceships will be sent up in May and October.

China will also continue with the research and development of the Chang’e-7 mission of its exploration project of the moon. According to plans, the Chang’e-7 is set to land on the moon’s South Pole around 2026.

A large number of satellites (卫星) will also be sent up in 2023, including 2 meteorological (气象) satellites, 3 backup satellites of the BeiDou-3 Navigation Satellite System.

There will be more exciting news from space in the rest of the year.