In 1999, under the Ministry of Education's Program for Promoting Academic Excellence of Universities, leading astronomers including ASIAA director Lo Kwok-yung and Professor Chiueh Tzi-hong of NTU's physics department proposed a research project to investigate the "cosmic microwave background." Everything-from the design to all the details-would be orchestrated from Taiwan.
前年，在教育部的卓越計畫中，出現了中研院院士魯國鏞、台大物理系教授闕志鴻等幾位重量級天文學者提出的「宇宙背景輻射計畫」，由設計到所有細節都將由國人主導。