The mid-term evaluation meeting on “Observation and Investigation of High Energy Radiation from the Space” was held by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) at IHEP from July 9 – 10, 2002. Taking part in the evaluation were Academician Huo Yuping of Zhengzhou University (leader of the evaluation group), Academician Li Tibei of IHEP (deputy group leader) and all the other group members of Fang Cheng and Lu Yan of Nanjing University, Qiao Guozun of Peking University, Li Zongwei of Beijing Normal University, Li Qibin and Zhao Yongheng of the National Observatory and Xu Xinhua of Shanghai Space Administration. Representatives from MST and CAS were also present.

　　At the evaluation meeting, deputy director-general Ma Yanhe of MST demanded that during the mid-term evaluation, the principle of “ emphasizing the main points, leaving some things undone in order to get other things done, being fair, open and just” be followed and that emphasis fall on the current status of the evaluated project and its prospects. He pointed out that the purpose of mid-term evaluation is to further clarify the direction of main attack and the objective when the current status of the project’s implementation is ascertained so that the group undertaking this project can further stress the main points, streamline the team, attract outstanding talents and optimize the research plan for the latter three years.

　　Academician Li Tibei, principal scientist of this project and all responsible persons of the sub-projects summarized their work respectively at the evaluation meeting.

　　“Observation and Investigation of High Energy Radiation from the Space” is a project under “the State Program for the Development of Key Basic Research”. It was approved in April 2000 and jointly undertaken by CAS and Tsinghua University with IHEP giving the backing, and the Center for Space Science and Application Research, CAS and Tsinghua university taking part. This project concerns the development of a hard X-ray modulation telescope (HXMT) with the highest sensitivity and the best resolution in the world using reliable and mature hardware technique. Such a development is based on the direct demodulation imaging method for information taking developed by Chinese scholars. This project will lay a good foundation to get the space projects funded in our country. This telescope is capable of performing the first hard X ray all sky survey with high resolution, discovering a number of new high energy astronomical objects and new phenomena of space high energy radiation and doing pointing observations with high sensitivity of black hole and high energy radiation of important astronomical objects like neutron star, etc.

　　After the project was initiated, the first issue dealt with was the organization of the team, mission division and the assignment. According to the mission, the management mechanism was set up and the system of job responsibility resting with the expert group headed by the principal scientist established. All these took only two years. Thus a good foundation was laid for accomplishing this project.

　　Since the approval of this project, important progress has been made for the direct demodulation imaging method to win the recognition of the international academic circles and at the same time, the HXMT project is arousing the attention from the international community of space science. During the Summer School for Space Science jointly organized by the European Space Agency, UNESCO, etc. in Italy last July, Professor Li Tibei was invited to introduce the HXMT project and the direct demodulation imaging method. Among the arranged courses were the design basis of HXMT and the direct demodulation imaging method developed by Chinese scholars, whose new creative ideas and scientific significance have aroused great interest and attention from the scholars and students attending the summer school.

　　According to schedule, ASCA、ROSAT、XTE、Chandra and XMM database as well as the analytical environment were built, the analysis software for direct demodulation imaging was developed and the space high energy radiation process studied. The project stressed the close coordination of theoretical study and experimental observation, the bringing forth of physics ideas and research methods and the best use of the international space high energy astronomical open data and the conditions provided by the construction of the high energy astrophysics database for this project. As a consequence, some new results with important scientific significance were achieved like the discovery of the diffused X ray structure of super nova remnant G54.1+0.3 and the existence of jet, the obtainment of a clear picture of the movement of high energy particles around the pulsar and the discovery of “bull eye” pulsar, the theoretical prediction of the formation of X ray line by the bubble ejection of AGN accretion disk matter confirmed by the joint observation of Chandra and Newton X ray observatories, study of γ ray burst model and strange star, and the established method of time scale spectrum for directly analyzing time variability in time domain.

　　According to the schedule and mission requirement, the following work has been accomplished, which met the expected target: the development of HXMT and the satellite designing; analysis of the modulation telescope, the requirements raised of the technique and interface of the satellite system, the feasibility study of telescopic system scheme and its designing; the development of accelerator unit and collimator; the overall technical requirement and specifications set for the entire system of the project and the satellite, and the preliminary design scheme of the entire satellite accomplished.

　　In the process of implementing this project, particular attention was paid to the cultivation of promising young people. Some have opened up new research fields through their work. They are likely to become good academic bellwethers. According to the requirements of the project and the long-range development of the discipline, emphasis will fall on the cultivation of young people who can undertake comprehensive and important scientific project. And attempts will be made to cultivate talents from students who master not only engineering technologies but can also do frontier research. In fact, initial results have been produced.

　　The evaluation group made positive comments on the progress and current status of the project and its sub-projects, and expressed the hope that efforts should be made for preparations to get the satellite of HXMT approved, including the study of technical difficulties and the feasibility of the application system. Development of detector and application software should also be strengthened.