The Space Radiobiological Exposure Facility (SREF) is a general experimental facility at the China Space Station for scientific research in the fields of space radiation protection, space radiation biology, biotechnology, and the origin of life. The facility provides an environment with controllable temperatures for experiments with organic molecules and model organisms such as small animals, plant seeds, and microorganisms. The cultivation of small animals can be achieved in the facility with the use of microfluidic chips and images and videos of such experiments can be captured by microscopy. SREF also includes a linear energy transfer (LET) detector, neutron detectors, and a solar ultraviolet (UV) detector to measure the LET spectrum of the charged particles, energy spectrum and dose equivalent of neutrons, and fluence of solar UV radiation, respectively. The facility is reusable, and the model organisms from the first exposure experiment were recovered in orbit and returned to the ground for further study.

The single event effect caused by space heavy ion radiation is one of the important factors affecting the safety and operation of spacecraft on orbit. In the research and evaluation of the frequency, spatial distribution and time characteristics of single event effects, linear energy transfer (LET) spectra of space radiation play an important role. On the Beidou navigation M15 and M16 satellites, a single event upset (SEU) and LET monitor was developed to obtain the upsets of the memory device and the LET spectra of space radiation which passes through the device. Through the measurement results from this monitor, the correlation between the device’s SEUs and the LET spectra could be studied.

Semi-structured orchard environment has the characteristics of high complexity and strong uncertainty, which brings many challenges to the localization and navigation of agricultural automation equipment with limited sensors. This paper introduces a tree trunk localization system in a semi-structured orchard using camera/ultrasonic sensors fusion. In our method, the location of each tree trunk, which is relative to the robot, is obtained through the trunk tracking camera/ultrasonic detection system on the robot. And the location and direction of the robot are obtained through wheel odometer and IMU, respectively, rather than the traditional high-precision RTK-GPS. In order to reduce the error caused by odometer and IMU, several control points are introduced to revise the tree trunks’ location, of which positions are determinate. Experiments suggest that in a simulated environment and a real orchard, which both have a row-column spacing of $4.3m\times 3.4m$, the tree trunk localization error of our approach is within 0.3m.

Bioorganic molecules, such as amino acids, nucleobases, and sugars, are widely distributed in space. Here, we utilized the Chinese Space Station to carry out an investigation on the solid-state condensation reactions of these “prebiotic organic molecules” under the combined effects of ionizing radiation and forsterite. Cumulative low-dose ionizing radiation can trigger dipeptide formations and phosphorylation of riboses. Dipeptide yields increased 41-fold due to the synergistic effect of forsterite plus sodium trimetaphosphate (P ₃ m). P ₃ m is activated upon irradiation to phosphorylate nucleosides into nucleotides. Under ionizing radiation, forsterite can promote hydroxyapatite to serve as an accessible phosphorus source for activating amino acids to form peptides. These findings indicate that complex biomolecules can be formed abiotically in space through ionizing radiation activation with the assistance of forsterite in certain radiation - resistant environments distant from planetary surfaces. It implies that apart from transporting prebiotic organic molecules to Earth, space can also provide opportunities for the in-situ assembly of ordered biomolecules from these disordered materials.

The radiation damage effect is relatively serious during spacecraft operation in orbit. To know the real cumulative dose in orbit accurately, a radiation dose detector is carried on the FY-4B satellite. It comprises one electric control unit and three dose detectors, with a total of four payloads. Each dose detector includes five dose-monitoring points corresponding to different shielding thicknesses, which are mainly used for the measurement of the dose depth. Three dose detectors with the same function are installed in the X, Y and Z positions and can detect the total dose in different directions during the operation of the satellite. Each detector has the characteristics of small size, high integration and low power consumption. At present, the FY-4B satellite is in orbit. The detectors have been working normally since they were started up, and good preliminary detection results have been obtained. From the power-up of the detectors to April 2022, the maximum dose has reached 2.7 × 10³ rad(Si). We conducted a preliminary analysis of the relationship between total dose and shielding thickness. In addition, the relationship between daily average dose and shielding thickness was further analyzed. These studies have application value for radiation protection design.

Based on orbit detection data acquired by a positive channel Metal Oxide Semiconductor (PMOS) dose detectors on FY4-A (GEO), BD3-M15 (MEO), and YH1-01A (LEO) between November 2018 and November 2022, investigations reveal variations in total dose and the mechanism of radiation dose increase within the geostationary earth orbit (GEO), medium earth orbit (MEO), and low earth orbit (LEO) during the transition from the 24th to the 25th solar cycles. It provides the radiation dose parameters for the study of the space environment from different altitude orbits, and also provides an important basis for studying the solar minimum activity and dose generation The data indicate directional disparities in radiation doses among the orbital regions, with the hierarchy being FY4-A > YH1-01A > BD3-M15. Furthermore, the results show that the total doses of FY4-A and BD3-M15 were higher than that of YH1-01A by two orders of magnitude, with BD3-M15 > FY4-A > YH1-01A. The monthly radiation dose rates of FY4-A in GEO and BD3-M15 in MEO exhibited positive correlation with their corresponding APs during the solar minimum. Notably, for FY4-A, the monthly radiation dose rate during geomagnetic disturbed periods exceeded that of the dose rate during geomagnetic quiet periods by one order of magnitude. This analysis revealed the substantial impact of geomagnetic storms and space environment disturbances on radiation doses detected by MEO and GEO orbital satellites. These perturbations, attributable to medium- and small-scale high-energy electron storms induced by reproducible coronal holes, emerged as key driving factors of the increase in radiation doses in MEO and GEO environments.