The core payload, the BGO calorimeter, contains more than 300 world's longest BGO crystals, which are 60 centimeters long. The crystals enhance the ability to identify particles. For instance, it can distinguish an electron from 50,000 protons.
A glance inside DAMPE would reveal thickly dotted wires, more complicated than those of the Beijing spectrometer, a large particle detector on the Beijing Electron Positron Collider.
CHINESE INNOVATION
At the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Chinese President Xi Jinping called for more efforts to make China a country of innovators.
"We should aim for the frontiers of science and technology, strengthen basic research, and make major breakthroughs in pioneering basic research and groundbreaking and original innovations," said Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.
He cited Wukong as one of China's major scientific breakthroughs of the past five years, together with achievements such as the quantum science satellite, the Jiaolong deep-sea manned submersible, the Tiangong-2 space lab and the FAST radio telescope.
The development of DAMPE reflects Chinese scientists' creativity and innovation in tackling one of the huge mysteries of modern science.
Chang Jin first mooted the idea in 1998. Scientists and engineers took almost two decades to make the satellite a reality and send it into space, and make a major breakthrough on the frontier of dark matter detection.
The Chinese technology and method is also applied in Japanese and U.S. probes.
The key for the detection is to distinguish the various particles in space, and accurately measure their energy, direction and charge, said Chang.
It is like hearing a swallow's twitter in storm.
"Searching for dark matter is like playing hide-and-seek. The more sensitive the detector, the more possible discoveries," said Chang.
After collecting the particles, scientists need to carefully analyze them. "So far, we use only common methods to analyze the data. However, the detection efficiency will rise if we continue to improve the analysis methods," Chang said.
Associate Professor Su Meng, of the Department of Physics and Laboratory for Space Research at the University of Hong Kong and a visiting research fellow at the Purple Mountain Observatory, said DAMPE for the first time clearly measures the cosmic electron and positron spectrum at an energy level up to 5 TeV (tera-electron-volts).
"This is of great significance for distinguishing whether the electrons and positrons are from dark matter annihilation or astrophysical phenomena," said Su.
"This is the first accurate observation at such a high energy range, which has never been achieved by any of the costly experiments including AMS-02 and the Fermi space telescope," Su said.
"During the long process of the human pursuit of science, we have seldom seen elements of Eastern culture. As a rising big country, China, at its current stage, has the ability and condition to contribute to the progress of human civilization," Su said.
"It's worth making efforts to leave China's mark on such an important scientific issue like exploring dark matter," he added.
Ed Gerstner, scientific director of Springer Nature China, said the results of Wukong satellite demonstrate a milestone in the development of China's technological prowess. The exquisite technology necessary to make the measurements is unrivalled. And who knows what other technological challenges it might help China meet.
China's support of fundamental science represents an understanding of the role that basic science plays as an engine of the innovation economy, according to Gerstner.
Bai Chunli, president of the CAS, said, "We should remember this day in the history of human scientific development, when Chinese scientists are no longer learners, successors and onlookers in major natural science discoveries, but, instead, they are gradually entering the center of the scientific stage."
