China launches plan for 3D satellite network to monitor sun and cosmic explosions

China has started an international project to build a three-dimensional satellite network between Earth and the moon that will track solar activity and study some of the universe’s most powerful explosions. The project plans to send 30 backpack-sized CubeSats into highly elliptical orbits around Earth in the next four years or so, according to the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, which will lead the project. The laboratory said on Friday the constellation would “fill a global gap in…