Ouyang Ziyuan

Ouyang Ziyuan ( Chinese  歐陽自遠  /  欧阳自远 , Pinyin Ōuyáng Zìyuǎn ; born October 9, 1935 in Ji'an , Jiangxi Province ) is a Chinese geochemist and politician of the Communist Party of China . He was one of the fathers of the People's Republic of China's Lunar Program . On January 27, 2013, the main belt asteroid 8919, also known as 1996 TU13 or 1969 EB2, was named after him.

Childhood and youth

Ouyang Ziyuan's family ran a pharmacy in Ji'an. Because his grandfather was selling scarce medicines to the Red Army at the time, he was sentenced to prison, which his father then served on his behalf. After the defeat of Japan in August 1945, the family moved from the city to Yongxin County , where his parents reopened a pharmacy.

Even at high school, Ouyang Ziyuan was interested in space and took part in the Astronomy Working Group there. After graduating from high school in 1952, his parents would have liked to see him study medicine. In the young People's Republic, however, there was just a great need for geologists who were to explore the country's mineral resources. Under the impression of the campaign at the time, Ouyang Ziyuan applied for a place at the Beijing Institute of Geology (北京 地质 学院). The second choice he gave was the Faculty of Astronomy at Nanjing University , and the third choice was the Faculty of Chemistry at Peking University .

Geology and geochemistry

Ouyang Ziyuan was accepted by the Geology Institute, where he began his studies at the Faculty of Exploration (勘探 系) in September 1952 . In March 1956, he joined the Chinese Communist Party. In July 1956, Ouyang Ziyuan graduated with a thesis on "Causes of Skarns in the Copper Deposits of Shouwangfen , Xinglong , Hebei Province ". He initially stayed at the institute and began an in-depth study of geochemistry in September 1956 . In March 1957 he moved to the Institute of Geology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences , where he began to work on his doctoral thesis on ore deposits under Prof. Tu Guangchi (涂 光 炽, 1920–2007). After receiving his doctorate in July 1961, Ouyang Ziyuan worked as an assistant to Prof. Hou Defeng (侯 德 封, 1900–1980) with nuclear geology. Prof. Hou sent him to the Chinese University of Science and Technology in Hefei , where he studied nuclear physics for a year . He then worked for half a year at the particle accelerator of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. From the beginning of 1964, on behalf of the then Commission for Defense Technology of the People's Liberation Army, he led a group of six experts selected from the Institute for Geology of the Academy of Sciences, the so-called "Group 219" (219 小组), which had to select suitable locations for underground nuclear tests.

In April 1966, Ouyang Ziyuan moved to the Geochemistry Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guiyang , Guizhou Province , where he stayed until December 4, 1993, from June 9, 1988 as head of the institute. During his time at the Institute for Geochemistry, he was a visiting scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg from November 1980 to October 1981 and from July 1983 to June 1984 . When the Jilin meteorite fell in northeast China on March 8, 1976 , he led a group of experts from all over the country to study the debris from the stone meteorite . From then on he dealt with extraterrestrial materials. He managed to get half a gram of moon rock from the 1 gram sample that the American security advisor Zbigniew Brzeziński had given China as a gift on his 1978 visit. He also carried out intensive studies on cosmic dust and climate changes caused by the impact of celestial bodies.

Lunar program

Around 1980 Ouyang Ziyuan's main research area was the Jilin meteorite. He published a variety of articles on its composition , the cosmic rays to which it was exposed before it entered the earth's atmosphere, and the thermal metamorphosis that had occurred in the meteorite. In addition, he also wrote around 40 articles on the moonstone that Brzeziński had brought with him without further information on the provenance . Based on the chemical composition of the sample, by comparing it with the known landing sites of the Apollo missions, he was able to assign the stone to Apollo 17 . This made him one of the most famous experts in the geology of the moon in China. He was the natural contact for the "Moon Exploration Project Group" (月球 探测 课题组) of the Academy of Sciences founded in 1991 when it came to defining the scientific goals of lunar missions in 1992. In a detailed report, he pointed out at the time that not only the well-known large ore deposits such as iron, the nuclear fuel thorium and, above all, the light metal titanium used in aerospace, could be the target of lunar missions, but also the mining of lunar helium-3 , which is considered an ideal fuel for a nuclear fusion power plant.

With this, Ouyang Ziyuan had given the direction of the Chinese lunar program, which was maintained for the next 30 years. His report became a key part of the first feasibility study the Academy submitted to the State Council in 1994, after which the first funding was approved. The title of the final report submitted in 2000 was "Scientific objectives of a probe for the exploration of mineral resources on the moon through China" (中国 月球 资源 探测 卫星 科学 目标).

Shortly after China made the existence of the lunar program public in 2002, Ouyang Ziyuan began to inspire the Chinese people with popular science lectures for the company and became its most famous face. When Prime Minister Wen Jiabao officially launched the People's Republic of China's lunar program on January 24, 2004 , Ouyang Ziyuan was appointed Chief Scientist (月球 应用 科学 首席 科学家) who, while the engineers were busy building the probe, defined the scientific goals and the selected payloads necessary to achieve these goals. In 2009, starting with the Chang'e-3 landing mission , the more than 20 years younger astrophysicist Yan Jun , director of the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences , took over the post of chief scientist. Ouyang Ziyuan remained on the lunar program as a senior advisor to the lunar exploration project leadership group (探 月 工程 领导 小组 高级 顾问) at the China National Space Administration . There he is one of the most committed advocates of a manned moon landing.

State politics

In addition to his work as a geochemist and space expert, Ouyang Ziyuan is politically active. In the December 1992 state elections, he was elected to the Guizhou State Parliament for the CCP . At the constituent meeting of the new state parliament on January 5, 1993, he became one of eight deputy chairmen of the standing committee of the 8th legislative period of the state parliament (贵州 省 第八届 人大常委会 副 主任). There, 44 MPs elected by the State Parliament prepare the bills in political detail, on which the State Parliament then votes in full strength of 638 MPs every January. In addition, Ouyang Ziyuan was elected chairman of the Finance and Economic Committee (财政 经济 委员会 主任 委员) of the state parliament. In December 1997 he was re-elected to the state parliament, and on January 7, 1998 one of 11 deputy chairmen of the standing committee (which now had only 42 of 595 members). In the 2002 state elections, Ouyang Ziyuan, now 67, did not run.

Works

In the course of his life, Ouyang Ziyuan wrote a variety of essays and scientific works, including:

• 核 转变 能 与 地球 物质 的 演化 [Changes in the rotation of the earth's core and evolution of its material]. 科学 出版社, 1974.
• 天体 化学 [ astrochemistry ]. 科学 出版社, 1989.
• 小 天体 撞击 与 古 环境 灾变 [The impact of celestial bodies and catastrophic environmental changes in the earth's past]. 湖北 科学 技术 出版社, 武汉, 1997.
• 月球 —— 人类 走向 太空 的 前哨站 [The moon - mankind's outpost for the way into space ]. 清华大学 科学 技术 出版社, 2002.
• 月球 科学 概论 [Introduction to Selenology ]. 宇航 出版社, 2005.
• Mineralogy and Petrology of the Kirin Meteorite and its Formation and Evolution . In: Scienta Sinica, 1, 1978 (6), pp. 805-822.
• Thermal Metamorphism of the Parent Body of the Kirin Meteorite and Its Cooling Process . In: Meteoritics, 1979 (4), p. 570.
• Reconstruction of the Jilin Meteorite Prior to Its Entrance into the Atmosphere . In: Kexue Tongbao, 1983, 28 (9), pp. 1234-1237.
• A Study on Cosmogenic Nuclides in the Jilin Meteorite and its Two-Stage Irradiation History . In: Scientia Sinica, 1984, 27 (8), pp. 320-332.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ryan S. Park: 8919 Ouyangziyuan (1996 TU13). In: ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. January 31, 2013, accessed July 25, 2019 . 
2. ↑ (8919) Ouyangziyuan = 1996 TU13 = 1969 EB2. In: minorplanetcenter.net. April 3, 2019, accessed on July 25, 2019 . 
3. ^ Dieter Hoffmann: Friedrich Houtermans (1903-1966). In: gn.geschichte.uni-muenchen.de. November 23, 2007, accessed July 24, 2019 . 
4. ^ Former Directors. In: gyig.cas.cn. Retrieved July 24, 2019 . 
5. ↑ 欧阳自远: 个人 主页. In: people.ucas.ac.cn. Retrieved July 25, 2019 (Chinese). 
6. ↑ Mark Wade: Ouyang Ziyuan in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed July 24, 2019.
7. ↑ 欧阳自远 et al .: 月球 某些 资源 的 开发 利用 前景. In: 地球 科学 - 中国 地质 大学 学报, 2002, 27 (5): pp. 498–503. Retrieved July 24, 2019 (Chinese). 
8. ↑ Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion Research. In: english.hf.cas.cn. December 2, 2002, accessed July 25, 2019 . 
9. ↑ 历任 领导. In: nao.cas.cn. Retrieved July 24, 2019 (Chinese). 
10. ↑ 严 俊. In: bao.ac.cn. August 21, 2009, accessed June 26, 2020 (Chinese). 
11. ↑ 付 龙: 火炬手 欧阳自远 ： 研究 月球 和 举办 奥运 目标 相通. In: 2008.people.com.cn. June 12, 2008, Retrieved July 24, 2019 (Chinese). 
12. ↑ 嫦娥 之 父 欧阳自远 ： 2020 年 后 可 载人 登月. In: tech.ifeng.com. October 1, 2010, accessed July 24, 2019 (Chinese). 
13. ↑ 贵州 省 第八届 人民 代表 大会 第 一次 会议 概况. In: gzrd.gov.cn. December 23, 2007, Retrieved July 25, 2019 (Chinese). 
14. ↑ 贵州 省 第 九届 人民 代表 大会 第 一次 会议 概况. In: gzrd.gov.cn. December 23, 2007, Retrieved July 25, 2019 (Chinese). 
15. ↑ 贵州 省 第 十届 人民 代表 大会 第 一次 会议 概况. In: gzrd.gov.cn. December 9, 2012, Retrieved July 25, 2019 (Chinese). 

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Ouyang is the family name here, Ziyuan is the first name.