Xinhua News Agency, Wuhan, July 12 Question: In 2030, a network of 300 stars will be in operation – decoding the ultra-low orbit and remote integrated satellite constellation
Xinhua News Agency reporters Hu Zhe, Tan Yuanbin, Song Chen
Low-orbit constellation construction is an important part of national strategic science and technology, and is of great significance for promoting economic development. With the development of society and the improvement of people’s living standards, the demand for satellite communication, navigation, remote sensing and other functions continues to increase. Low-orbit constellation construction can provide more accurate, real-time and efficient services to meet the needs of all parties.
On July 12, at the 9th China (International) Commercial Aerospace Summit Forum opened in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation announced the official launch of the ultra-low orbit and remote satellite constellation, and the first satellite is planned to be launched in December. What is the background of the construction of this satellite constellation? What are the main features?
Open up a new track for the progress of aerospace science and technology
Ultra-low orbit refers to an orbit with an orbit altitude of less than 300 kilometers, which reduces the satellite from the traditional low-Earth orbit to less than 300 kilometers, so that its "remote sensing" to the earth becomes "near-end", so that it has the advantages of low payload cost, small communication delay, and miniaturization of user end points.
Li Yanbin, deputy general manager of the general department of space engineering of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, said that by building an open distributed intelligent networked ultra-low orbit space foundation base, by carrying different loads, supplemented by advanced on-board intelligent processing, satellite terminal direct connection, and inter-satellite communication technology, space information can be quickly and accurately obtained, serving the urgent needs of governments, enterprises, and even individuals for higher precision, high timeliness, and high reliability of space decision-making information, which can stimulate the huge potential of the commercial remote sensing market, open up a new track for the progress of aerospace science and technology, and shape the development of the space information industry.
Unlike traditional orbits, ultra-low orbit has a complex dynamic environment, with rarefied atmospheric drag and atomic oxygen flux increasing with a nearly logarithmic law as the orbit decreases. To maintain long-term stable and reliable operation of satellites, it is necessary to offset the rapid decay of satellite orbits due to higher atmospheric drag. Although long-term operation in ultra-low orbit requires many technical challenges, the investment value is huge. The United States, Japan and Europe have all launched relevant commercial or scientific sounding activities.
See better, faster, understand better
The ultra-low orbit and remote integrated satellite constellation aims to develop a large-scale real-time intelligent remote sensing service system in ultra-low orbit, give full play to the natural advantages of proximity, low delay and small road loss, and create an ultra-low orbit and remote integrated satellite constellation and its application system with "small but fine", "fast and smart" and "many and cheap" as differentiated characteristics. It incubates a new domain and new quality space infrastructure for direct connection to user sensing, transmission and calculation, and establishes a new digital economy format for satellite direct connection to mass users.
Zhang Nan, the chief designer of the ultra-low orbit remote integrated satellite constellation, introduced that the ultra-low orbit remote integrated satellite constellation mainly has the following characteristics: first, it can see more clearly, and the spatial resolution will reach 0.5 meters; second, it can see faster, and the spatial information will reach the user within 15 minutes; third, it can be seen more clearly. Through intelligent processing on the satellite, direct connection to the star terminal, and inter-satellite communication, the ground centralized processing data link is omitted, and the spatial information can be directly reached to the user end point. At the same time, the cost of a single satellite of the ultra-low orbit remote integrated satellite constellation will be lower, and the optical load weight and cost will be reduced by 50% under the same resolution.
Facing the future, the construction of the ultra-low orbit remote integrated satellite constellation will be implemented step by step, including three stages:
In the technical and business verification stage, complete the key technology verification of ultra-low orbit satellites, carry out on-orbit technical tests and business verification; in 2024, complete the launch of a 9-star business verification star cluster; in 2025, build a real-time remote sensing business application demonstration system to provide 1-day service response capability.
In the stage of large-scale networking, it will be widely used in the industry to form large-scale networking and achieve half-hour response capability. It is planned to complete the operation of 300 satellite networking in 2030, providing a visible light, synthetic aperture radar, hyperspectral, and infrared multi-type OurHours remote sensing service system to form a global 15-minute response capability.
In the integrated development stage, complete the comprehensive construction of the business system, achieve instant business response capabilities within 10 minutes worldwide, and provide complete instant perception services.
Satellites are becoming more "intelligent"
The construction of the ultra-low-orbit remote satellite constellation not only shows our country’s latest strength in the aerospace field, but also breaks through a number of key technologies, providing more opportunities and challenges. According to reports, the satellite will achieve multi-satellite coordination through inter-satellite links, such as the first satellite receives user requests, the second satellite shoots the required information, and the third satellite completes intelligent processing. At the same time, the satellite will also become more "intelligent", capable of real-time processing and intelligent recognition of image data in orbit, and fast distribution of results through inter-satellite links.
In the face of the needs of the field of emergency rescue, the ultra-low orbit remote integrated satellite constellation can provide high-efficiency disaster information, which can provide effective data and capability support for emergency rescue, fire monitoring, disaster prevention and mitigation. The satellite application service platform provides users with normalized disaster monitoring and early warning. After an emergency incident occurs, inter-satellite transmission and on-board intelligent processing can efficiently shoot and extract key information, relying on the network to directly transmit to the vehicle or portable end point, within 15 minutes for the first-line disposal unit and front-line command agencies Provide high-efficiency disaster area scene images, efficiently support emergency rescue and auxiliary decision-making.
With such a huge constellation construction, how to make a profit is also a topic of concern to everyone. Li Yanbin introduced that on the one hand, commercial profits can be obtained by selling satellites and user end point products (including software), spatial data products and value-added services; on the other hand, by building an ultra-low orbit space base to create a new quality and new domain industrial ecology, and collect payloads for the society to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.