China's first "ground space station," the home-grown Space Environment Simulation and Research Infrastructure (SESRI), passed its acceptance review on February 27 in Harbin, the capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

SESRI is a ground-based, large-scale space science and technology experimental platform designed for the study of basic scientific issues in areas such as space materials, devices and magnetospheric physics. Developed by the Harbin Institute of Technology and the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, it has simulation capabilities for nine space environment factors, including plasma, particle irradiation and solar electromagnetic radiation.

It is a major scientific facility in China's space sector, as well as the first major scientific and technological infrastructure project in China's northeastern region, according to local authorities.

"The achievement means that many future experiments that would have had to be carried out in space before can now be done on the ground," said Li Liyi, head of the Harbin Institute of Technology's research institute of space environment and material science.

The platform will be of great importance to China in facilitating major breakthroughs in scientific and technological innovation, industrial transformation and upgrading, and the cultivation of highly skilled talent, said Han Jiecai, president of the Harbin Institute of Technology and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.