Chinese icebreaker "Xuelong"，returned home from Antarctica，is anchored in the dock in Shanghai，April 12，2016，after conducting the country's 32nd scientific expedition to Antarctica。

The icebreaker，carrying China's 32nd expedition team，covered about 30,000 nautical miles in the 158-day expedition。

Yang Shihai，the associate professor of Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics & technology，National Astronomical Observatories，CAS，returned in triumph。

China's 32nd expedition team set off on November 7th，2015 from Shanghai。The expedition team covered about 10,000 kilometers in one-month voyage and reached the Prydz Bay in the Antarctic。

Then XUELONG started to unload the cargo and prepared for Inland expedition。Two Chinese Antarctic expedition inland teams，including a total of 38 researchers，set off for Antarctic inland on Dec 15, 2015。

At 5 o’clock pm on Dec.30th，2015，Dr. Yang Shihai and the other twenty-seven members of the Chinese Antarctic inland exploration team reached Antarctic Kunlun Station，which on the peak of Antarctica's inland ice cap，the 4093-meter-high ice dome A，after 16 days of trek。Dr. yang Shihai was busy with the work of maintaining Antarctic Survey Telescope (AST) and other astronomical instruments。

He completed his mission successfully after 20-day’s hard work，The Chinese Antarctic inland expedition set off for Zhongshan Station at 8 O’clock am on Jan. 21st ，2016。And they were back to Zhongshan Station in the afternoon on Feb. 7th finally。

The Antarctic astronomy scientific expedition completed many tasks，such as maintaining a telescope named as AST3-2，installing cameras and temperature sensors。The observation data are gotten and emergencies on site were dealt with。His partner，Dr. Yu Ce，the associate professor of Tianjin University，was in charge of PLATO。At the same time，the scientists in Nanjing monitored the telescope day and night remotely。

Clean energy resources are installed at Kunlun Station this time such as wind power and solar power for more new astronomical instruments in the future。

AST is the first large unattended automatic survey telescope developed by China。The telescope is 680mm in diameter with entrance pupil diameter of 500mm. The features of the telescope are automatic tracking with high accuracy, cleaning snow and frost by itself, operating at the temperature of -80℃ with high reliability，ultra-low power consumption，etc。

AST is a “Pathfinder” for China Antarctic Kunlun Observatory and it is developed and maintained by Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics & technology/CAS，National Astronomical Observatories，Purple Mountain Observatory，Tsinghua University，Beijing Normal University，Nanjing University，Tianjin Normal University。A wealth of experience has been accumulated in the process。