An eight-member Chinese surveying team reached the summit of Mt. Qomolangma, the world's highest peak, on May 27, with Chinese-made high-tech devices playing a big role in measuring the height and gravity at the summit.

A team member erects a beacon on the peak. (Photo/Xinhua)

A lot of the equipment used in the measurement was made by domestic manufacturers, including gravimeters, surveyor's beacons and GNSS receivers.

About one year ago, Bai Huagang, a coordinator on the measurement project, began contacting domestic surveying and mapping equipment companies to develop the instruments needed for the task. Back then, Bai had been rejected by foreign manufacturers because of the difficulty involved in research and development and the low economic benefit.

"We only had 81 days to develop the high-accuracy gravimeter to be used in measuring Mt. Qomolangma, much shorter than the normal testing duration of one year for mechanical gravimeters," said Wang Bin, director of the project at the Beijing Aodi Detection Instruments Co., Ltd.

A team member conducts surveying with a total station. (Photo/Xinhua)

The team members sacrificed weekends and holidays, debugging and improving the equipment again and again based on the conditions at the summit.

In addition to the tight schedule and heavy workloads, all the manufacturers were faced with the challenge of making the instruments both reliable and simple.

The South Group, manufacturer of the surveyor's beacons for the measurement, spent eight months reducing the weight of the marker from 5 kg to 3.4 kg.

A team member conducts surveying. (Photo/Xinhua)

Due to the summit’s extreme environment, the equipment had to be light and easy to carry so that the team could easily operate it while wearing heavy gloves and in an oxygen-deficient state, said the director of a factory under the company.

CHC Navigation, manufacturer of the GNSS receivers used in the measurement, pointed out that the company managed to develop a GNSS receiver with a main body weighing 2.2 kg, a little lighter than a similar type developed by the American company Trimble.

Every gram taken off the weight required breakthroughs in chip integration, machine materials, electromagnetic screen and other aspects, said Zhang Peiyao, hardware R&D director at the company.