10/27/2026
Yesterday, I read about the remarkable journey of Cai Zheng (蔡峥), a 40-year-old associate professor and vice chair of the Department of Astronomy at Tsinghua University. He is leading an ambitious project to build a powerful new telescope in western China.
The project is called MUST, short for the MUltiplexed Survey Telescope. I do not understand all the technical details, but what impressed me was the scale of the undertaking and the determination of the scientist behind it.
MUST is designed to do something special: observe a large area of the sky and collect detailed information about thousands of celestial objects at the same time. Unlike an ordinary camera, which mainly records how an object looks, a spectroscopic telescope also analyzes the light coming from it. This light can reveal information about an object's composition, movement, and distance.
In simple terms, MUST will help astronomers map the universe in much greater detail and investigate some of its biggest mysteries, including dark matter, dark energy, and how galaxies form and evolve. With a 6.5-meter primary mirror and thousands of optical fibers to collect light from different objects simultaneously, it is designed to survey the sky far more efficiently than existing facilities of its kind. Its first light—the moment it begins making astronomical observations—is planned for around 2029.
Once built, MUST marks China’s leap into leading large spectroscopic survey in the world. It will bring China into the front rank for this kind of cosmic mapping.
The telescope is being built at Lenghu, in Qinghai Province, on Saishiteng Mountain, at an elevation of about 4,576 meters. The site offers exceptionally dry, dark skies and stable atmospheric conditions, which are important for observing distant objects. But the same remote, high-altitude environment also makes construction and testing difficult.
The engineering challenges are beyond imagination. The project requires a giant, precisely shaped mirror, a sophisticated optical system, thousands of light-collecting fibers, and machinery capable of tracking celestial objects with extraordinary accuracy. Astronomers, engineers, and specialists from different fields must work together to make all these components function as one system.
The financial and professional risks are equally daunting. Cai has said that the project would cost more than one billion yuan and that, at the beginning, some experts doubted it could succeed. For a young academic, leading such a complex, long-term project is very different from conducting research and publishing papers. It requires not only scientific knowledge but also the ability to raise funds, build a team, coordinate different disciplines, and keep going when the outcome remains uncertain.
What touched me most was Cai's reflection on belief. He said, in essence, that from very beginning we must believe it can be done, work hard toward it, and persist in doing what is difficult but worthwhile.
“ 你必须相信这件事能办成.” (Nǐ bìxū xiāngxìn zhè jiàn shì néng bàn chéng.) You have to believe that you can make it happen.
I find this meaningful and inspiring far beyond science. Whether we are pursuing a career, raising children, learning a new skill, or working toward a long-term goal, we often face doubts—from others and from ourselves. Belief means believing that the goal is worth pursuing and that, through effort and persistence, success will become possible.
