Tech China Weekly: rocket engine, farmerless farms, 5G trend and cancer screening

BEIJING, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The following are The highlights of CHINA's key technology news from The past week:

ROCKET engine

Chinese engineers have successfully carried out a compatibility test on The turbopump and gas generator of rocket engine, according to a statement of CHINA Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.

The engine will deliver 500 tonnes of thrust using a combination of liquid oxygen and kerosene.

FARMERLESS FARMS

From Xinhu Farm in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to Jiansanjiang, a major grain growing base in norTheastern Heilongjiang Province, to Xinghua automated farm, eastern Jiangsu Province, CHINA is exploring precision agriculture, a new way of farming that might one day lead to no farmers.

In These farms, technologies like global satellite navigation systems, remote sensing and automatic control systems, as well as self-driving tractors are applied over The whole farming process.

5G TREND

A 5G network in Shanghai's Hongkou District, backed by Chinese telecom giant CHINA Mobile with 228 5G base stations, has started trial runs.

CHINA Mobile also launched a 5G-converted WiFi network to cover a metro station in Changchun, capital of norTheast CHINA's Jilin Province.

These moves add to a recent trend of Chinese cities adopting The 5G network to meet public demands.

CANCER SCREENING

Shenzhen-based BGI, CHINA's top gene-sequencing provider, said They had developed two screening technologies for early cancer detection.

One technology can detect The gene mutation and methylation level of circulating tumor DNA in blood plasma, thus evaluating The risk of various cancers including lung, liver, ovarian, pancreatic and colorectal cancers, according to Zhu Shida, BGI's oncology consultant.

The oTher technology, with lower cost, specifically focuses on The early screening of colorectal cancer, one of The most common cancers in CHINA.