At the Beidou-1 F1 star transfer mobilization meeting, everyone discussed ensuring quality and safety.
The Beidou-3 satellite team took a group photo at the launch site.
Xichang Satellite Launch Center technicians are hoisting rockets to the launch tower.
A quality culture slogan was erected next to the No. 2 launch station of Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
In the summer, Beidou people enter the test hall at 15 degrees Celsius from a 40-degree Celsius outdoor setting and put on military coats to work.
Jiang Tianjiao, reporter of Economic Daily China Economic Net
Editor’s note, China’s Beidou, our country’s self-built satellite navigation system. Since the Beidou-1 project was established in 1994, after 26 years, from scratch, from active to passive, from regional to global, handed over a heavy "report card".
On July 31, 2020, China solemnly announced to the world that China’s self-built and independently operated global satellite navigation system has been fully completed, and China Beidou has since opened a new chapter of high-quality service to the world and benefit mankind. It will embrace the world with a more open and inclusive attitude and write a new chapter of space-time service with the world.
Fighting the epidemic, every second counts. Beidou "traffic" opens up the fire line transportation line to ensure the timely delivery of epidemic prevention materials;
The National Day military parade attracted worldwide attention. Beidou "standard" showed its talents, receiving the reading team and equipment "not bad in seconds", and reading the military prestige and national prestige;
On Mount Everest, the top of the world, Beidou provides the main data for Chinese climbers to complete elevation measurements.
In the stormy waters of the South China Sea, Chinese fishermen are overlooking China’s Beidou no matter which part of the sea they drive to;
In mountainous areas with frequent flash floods, "Beidou + Meteorology" allows residents to know the weather early and better carry out ecological protection, resource development and adventure tourism;
On the constantly flowing road, Beidou allows people to travel freely through the streets and alleys…
This is China’s Beidou, our country’s self-built satellite navigation system. It is an indispensable information infrastructure for national security and economic and social development, and an important symbol of great power status and comprehensive national strength.
On July 31, 2020, the completion and opening ceremony of the Beidou-3 global satellite navigation system was grandly held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. China solemnly announced to the world that China’s independently built and independently operated global satellite navigation system has been fully completed, and China’s Beidou has since opened a new chapter of high-quality service to the world and benefit mankind.
From then on, China’s Beidou officially went abroad and became a satellite navigation system serving the world. It will embrace the world with a more open and inclusive attitude and write a new chapter of space-time services with the world.
Name "Beidou"
In 1994, the world’s first global satellite navigation system GPS was fully completed; it was also the year that our country began to independently develop the Beidou satellite navigation system and named it after the "Beidou" used by the ancestors to identify the direction
From scratch, the road that Beidou has taken is not easy.
As early as the 1970s, pioneers engaged in "two bombs and one satellite" had already realized the importance of satellite navigation and positioning systems. They had struggled in the field of satellite navigation and carried out fruitful work in theoretical exploration and development practice. The "Lighthouse Project", which was established in the late 1960s, can be said to be the predecessor of the Beidou project. Although this plan was eventually terminated due to technological transformation and limited financial resources, it served as a beacon, accumulating valuable experience for the Beidou project that was later launched.
After the reform and opening up, our country has accelerated the pace of economic development, and the important value of satellite navigation and positioning in the national economy and national defense construction has been put forward by scientists again. But at that time, the United States has become a dominant player in the field of satellite positioning systems by virtue of GPS, and Russia’s GLONASS has also completed the global network. With the national conditions of our country at that time, taking the old road of European and American countries can only be a chaser forever. Only by finding another way can we have the opportunity to overtake.
How can we build an autonomous and controllable national weapon?
The first generation of Beidou builders agreed that the most urgent need was to solve the "presence or absence problem" first. In 1983, experts and scholars represented by Academician Chen Fangyun proposed the idea of using two geosynchronous orbit satellites to determine ground and air targets. The principle of the "dual satellite positioning" construction plan is to treat the center of the earth as a virtual satellite, and then launch two geosynchronous satellites to form a constellation, which will be calculated and processed by the ground control center to achieve rapid positioning of ground targets in the region. This plan used China’s most mature aerospace technology at that time, with the smallest constellation, the least investment, and the shortest cycle, to achieve the independent and controllable construction of the satellite navigation system, which strengthened the confidence of victory for subsequent development, laid a solid technical foundation, and accumulated rich engineering experience.
Whether to step into global networking? This caused a lot of controversy at the time. To build a global navigation and positioning system requires at least 24 satellites, which took the United States and Russia more than 20 years. However, to safeguard our country’s national sovereignty, security and development interests cannot be delayed. China cannot afford to delay or wait. It must give full play to the maximum benefits of Beidou in the shortest possible time. What should I do? Academician Sun Jiadong, the "Two Bombs Founder", the chief designer of the Dongfanghong No. 1 satellite, and the first chief designer of the Beidou Project, led the engineering and technical personnel to creatively propose a "step-by-step" strategy, first testing and then building, first domestic and then peripheral, first regional and then global.
The road was finally opened. The "three-step" development blueprint of the Beidou project was determined: the first step was to establish a dual-satellite positioning test system to form a regional active positioning and navigation service capability; the second step was to complete the launch of more than 10 satellites in three orbits, build a regional navigation system, form a regional passive service capability, and provide positioning, navigation, timing and short message communication services to the Asia-Pacific region; the third step was to build a Beidou global satellite navigation system composed of 3 geostationary orbit satellites and 30 non-geostationary orbit satellites, covering the world, and form a global passive service capability.
What are "active" and "passive"? Li Zuhong, the commander of the Beidou-1 system and a researcher at China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, once had a vivid metaphor: the difference between "active" and "passive" is equivalent to a walkie-talkie and a radio. Active is like a walkie-talkie, which can receive and send signals, while passive is like a radio, which only receives satellite signals and no longer sends signals to the outside. Academician Sun Jiadong said that the design of China’s Beidou navigation satellite system combines "active" and "passive" very cleverly to give full play to its role, which is the biggest feature and highlight of China’s Beidou, and also the advantage of Beidou.
In 1994, it was a year of great significance in the history of satellite navigation development in both the world and China. In this year, the world’s first global satellite navigation system GPS was fully completed; it was also the year that the Party Central Committee, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission made a major strategic decision to independently develop the Beidou satellite navigation system. Named after the "Beidou Star" used by the ancestors of the descendants of Yan and Huang to identify the direction, China began the long journey of the development and construction of the first generation of satellite navigation systems.
Cross the river by feeling the stones
Looking back at the long journey since the Beidou No. 1, due to the blockade of foreign technology, the Beidou people have been pioneering all the way, "feeling the stones" to find a way to localize development
Looking back on the construction process of the Beidou project in our country, the Beidou No. 1 realized that China’s navigation satellite was from scratch, making our country the third country to have navigation satellites after the United States and Russia. At that time, foreign countries implemented strict technical blockade on our country, and domestic parts manufacturers were not yet mature. Beidou people could only "cross the river by feeling the stones".
Long-term stable operation is the foundation of the satellite navigation system. Under the technical conditions at that time, the three major components of the control subsystem that affect the long-term stable operation of the satellite – the infrared earth sensor, the momentum wheel and the solar panel drive mechanism – were not localized. The research and development team started with key technologies, key materials and key processes. After more than 8 years and several twists and turns, the three components finally achieved their first flight on the backup star of Beidou-1, and independently solved the "eyes", "legs and feet" and "shoulder joints" of the satellite.
Beidou-1 initially launched the "Dongfanghong-3" satellite platform developed by our country. Although it adopted the most advanced three-axis stability control scheme and two-component unified propulsion scheme at that time, due to foreign blockades and embargoes on key technologies in our country, the realization of these schemes must rely on its own conditions. According to the experts of the Five Institutes of Aerospace Science and Technology Group, at that time, the Five Institutes gathered domestic superior forces, and in just a few years, they completed the on-board computer of the control subsystem, the central control circuit, the large-capacity surface tension tank of the propulsion subsystem, and the 490 Newton thrust engine. In the end, the 65 components of the Beidou-1 satellite propulsion subsystem were "all domestically produced".
If the satellite navigation system is compared to a tree, then the technology is like its root, and the frequency resource is the soil on which the tree grows. Without frequency, the satellite navigation system will be like a tree that has no roots, no matter how well designed it is, it will not be able to use the stage.
According to Tan Shusen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a senior engineer at the Satellite Navigation and Positioning Station, in the initial stage of satellite navigation system construction, frequency resources were relatively abundant, and the GPS system and GLONASS system that were built earlier did not have the problem of frequency resource conflict. However, by the time of Beidou system construction, developed countries had already divided up the satellite navigation frequencies, and the competition for frequency resources was very fierce. After more than 300 difficult negotiations with dozens of countries, the first generation of Beidou scientists creatively proposed the compatibility evaluation criteria for satellite navigation signals, which proved that Beidou and other satellite navigation systems did not affect each other when the frequencies overlapped, and won the "world consensus" of frequency sharing, which won the precious frequency resources for the country.
However, the ITU stipulates that all countries can apply for the right to use new resources equally, but they must launch navigation satellites within a valid period of 7 years and successfully receive the returned signal, which will automatically become invalid after the expiration date. In order to protect the last "window" on April 17, 2007, the Beidou project carried out a system-wide general mobilization and a general war, and rushed to complete the satellite development by the end of February of that year. However, before the launch, the transponder on the satellite suddenly showed an abnormality. To ensure foolproof, the engineering test team decisively disassembled the star-arrow combination that had already stood on the tower, took out the satellite transponder, and did not sleep for 72 hours to successfully troubleshoot.
At 4:11 on April 14, 2007, the satellite with an important mission was successfully launched; at 20:00 on the 17th, Beijing clearly received the signal from the satellite. At this moment, the deadline for frequency failure has been less than 4 hours. China Beidou "broke the whistle" at the last moment and got the "admission ticket" to enter the global satellite navigation system club.
Crossing "Lazikou"
The process of independent innovation is doomed to be arduous, but only by walking unswervingly can we firmly grasp our destiny in our own hands
The dilemma of not having a "clock", the worry of lacking a "core", and the difficulty of laying out a "station"… In the process of the Beidou system along the way, the most indispensable thing is one problem after another and difficulties. The process of independent innovation is destined to be arduous, but the researchers of the Beidou satellite navigation system know that the key core technologies cannot be bought with money, and even if they are bought, they are unreliable. The way to introduce imitation is not far away. Only by unswervingly following the path of independent innovation can we firmly grasp our destiny in our own hands.
After the wind and rain, the sunshine always faced the seemingly insurmountable "Loushan Pass" and "Lazikou" without its own atomic clock and chip, and the realization of global services under the conditions of regional distribution stations. With the perseverance and courage of rolling stones, Beidou people have embarked on a development path of independent innovation and pursuit of excellence.
"What time is it?" This is a question we face every day in our lives. And it is not the clocks around us that provide us with the answer, but the navigation satellites in the sky. Timing is an important function of the Beidou satellite navigation system. Cross-sea bridges, undersea tunnels, many cranes work together, and often thousands of meters of work surface. If there is a little time, it will be "lost by the slightest mile".
The accuracy of timing depends on the "heart" of the navigation satellite – the atomic clock. Due to the complex mechanism and great technical difficulty of the spaceborne atomic clock, a few countries such as the United States, Russia, and Switzerland have monopolized this technology for a long time. Unfortunately, the first atomic clock designed by our country’s scientific research team for the Beidou satellite is just passable. Not only does it often have "sudden jumps" during work, but the accuracy is also far from the international level. Whether the technical bottleneck of the atomic clock can be broken through is related to the success or failure of the construction of the Beidou system in our country.
In the office of Mei Ganhua, a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, there are still several drawers of experimental objects in the collection. They are cherished by Mei Ganhua and have witnessed the difficult search of the research team for 20 years. "The core component of the atomic clock, the microwave cavity, is only the size of a film, and it needs to be drilled in a specific position to measure the width and depth. When there was no computer simulation technology at that time, they could only explore and polish it a little bit." Mei Ganhua said that this technology alone has been tested hundreds of times. Finally, a slotted tube microwave cavity with a new structure and working principle was successfully developed. This research uses a small-volume atomic gas chamber to excite high-intensity atomic transition signals, and has obtained invention patents in China and the United States.
In addition to the Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, the Space Technology Research Institute of Aerospace Science and Technology Group and the 203 Institute of the Second Institute of Aerospace Science and Industry Group have also carried out research on a series of key technologies of the spaceborne rubidium atomic clock. This is a very "tedious" work. In order to ensure 24-hour uninterrupted testing, researchers often debug during the day and stare at the test instrument at night, observing the data, and the test is all night. In the stage of day and night debugging, everyone is like a clockwork "clock". In 2005, the Aerospace Science and Industry 203 Institute delivered the first two engineered prototype identification machines for the spaceborne rubidium atomic clock in our country, marking a big step in the autonomy of our country’s atomic clock. In 2007, catching up with the Beidou test satellite launched in advance to compete for frequency resources, our country’s self-developed spaceborne rubidium atomic clock went into service. Around 2008, Mei Ganhua’s team successfully developed a complete independent intellectual property rights and met the requirements of aerospace engineering. The spaceborne rubidium atomic clock sample product achieved timing accuracy comparable to the same technology of the US GPS system, broke the monopoly and blockade of foreign technology, and was used in batches for the "Beidou-2" satellite. China’s Beidou finally installed a "Chinese core".
Today, the on-board atomic clock on the "Beidou-3" global system has a timing accuracy of 3 10 billion seconds, which is tied with the latest generation of on-board rubidium clocks of US GPS satellites, ranking among the international top level and can meet the needs of decimeter-level navigation and positioning. For example, if the car is equipped with the Beidou satellite navigation and positioning system, it provides a position accuracy smaller than the lane spacing, which can help drivers avoid traffic jams and ensure driving safety.
"The development of Beidou was done by the Chinese themselves. The’giant ‘blocked our technology and didn’t let us stand on our shoulders. The only way is to become a’giant’ yourself," Li Zuhong said.
The lack of "China core" has always been a "heart disease" plaguing our country’s high-tech field. For the construction and application of Beidou system engineering, having domestic chips is essential to ensure safety, stability and reliability.
Through in-depth mobilization, the whole project has formed a firm consensus that it is better to localize products "with low indicators and high prices, but also to use them boldly"; the overall research of the project formulates an action plan, and implements the autonomous and controllable requirements in key technology research, Product Research & Development, competitive procurement and other links; establishes an autonomous and controllable coordination group led by the special project management office and participated in by multiple departments. Through key industries and regional application demonstration projects, it vigorously promotes the use of autonomous chips, modules and software products. Through construction and iteration, the product quality level has been effectively improved.
The domestic Beidou chip processing has been improved from 0.35 microns to 28 nanometers, which has been widely used in the field of Internet of Things and consumer electronics. The 22-nanometer process radio frequency baseband integrated navigation and positioning chip that supports the new signal of Beidou No. 3 has a smaller size, lower power consumption and higher accuracy, and has a batch capacity.
As of the end of 2019, the shipment of domestic navigation chips has exceeded 100 million pieces, and Beidou navigation chips, module high-precision boards and antennas have been exported to more than 120 countries and regions.
Another major feature of the Beidou global navigation system construction is the first Ka-band inter-satellite link. According to the construction and operation mode of the traditional global satellite navigation system, many ground stations need to be established on a global scale. However, the Beidou system cannot establish ground stations around the world like GPS. In order to solve the data transmission channel of overseas satellites, the Beidou No. 3 research and development team of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation has innovatively proposed the constellation inter-satellite link technology, which adopts the integrated design of inter-satellite and satellite-ground transmission functions to realize the link interoperability between satellites and satellites, and satellites and ground stations. This means that although we "cannot see" the Beidou satellites on the other side of the earth, we can also get in touch with them using the intersatellite link of the Beidou satellites. The space "brothers" held hands and connected their hearts, not only realizing mutual communication and data transmission, but also mutual distance measurement, automatically "maintaining formation", which could reduce the pressure on ground management and maintenance. With this "unique skill", the project realized the operation control of the global constellation only by relying on domestic stations, and the global service capability was comparable to the world-class system.
After the deployment of the Beidou-3 global system constellation was completed, Andrew Dempster, director of the Australian Space Engineering Research Center, pointed out that Beidou is a major breakthrough because it means that China can use the autonomous navigation system completely independently and no longer rely on anyone.
"50 million" project
Doing earth-shattering things, doing incognito, regardless of front and rear, regardless of state-owned enterprises and private enterprises, regardless of whether they are in front of the stage or behind the scenes, they are all Beidou people, and together they have written a fiery chapter of the major aerospace project "a game of chess across the country, a battle of thousands of troops"
From the very beginning of the Beidou project, the builders of the South China Sea and North China have gathered at the front line of Beidou’s research and construction with passion and dreams. They have done earth-shattering things and become incognito people, regardless of front and rear, state-owned enterprises and private enterprises, and front and back of the stage. They have jointly written a fiery chapter of the major aerospace project "a game of chess in the whole country, and a battle of thousands of troops and horses". As Yang Changfeng, the chief designer of the Beidou project, said: "Beidou is a ’50 million ‘project: it has mobilized thousands of troops, experienced thousands of difficulties and dangers, and paid thousands of hardships. To enter thousands of households will benefit thousands of generations."
In 2015, the Beidou-3 is about to launch a test satellite, and its success directly affects whether the follow-up networking mission can proceed smoothly, which is very important. In order to catch up with the "launch window", the general mechanical development team of the General Department of the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group racked their brains, worked hard, and did their best to adjust the process and streamline the project… There is only one belief in everyone’s heart – "We must leave the factory on time!" In order to ensure that each work is completed as planned, the final assembly site is operated 24 hours a day, and the designer follows the production 24 hours a day. In the hall as bright as day, he couldn’t tell whether it was night or day. When he was sleepy, he went out to wash his face and refresh himself. When he was tired, he sat on the scene and rested for a while. "The antenna is deployed smoothly, and the rotation command is correct"… The successful completion of each node task will give a "heart booster" to the people present. After more than a month of hard work, the test star was finally successfully launched on September 30.
Similar scenes have appeared countless times in the entire Beidou system project, holding on day and night, never giving up, and there are many spirits that belong to the Beidou people, among which the spirit of craftsmen is the soul of the Beidou project.
In a key single-machine test of the ninth Beidou-3 satellite, the general director designer Liu Jiaxing found that a key indicator "exceeded the standard". "How much is the difference?" The answer was "less than a nanosecond". In other words, the error is less than one billionth of a second. But Liu Jiaxing just couldn’t pass the test in his heart. For this error, the whole team stopped moving forward. In their words, "We must not let the satellite go to the sky with hidden dangers!"
On the evening of June 15, 2020, the launch of the last global networking satellite of Beidou-3, which attracted worldwide attention, was delayed due to technical problems found by the carrier rocket, and nearly 400 tons of conventional rocket propellant that had been refueled had to be safely released. At a critical moment, the refueling team repeatedly studied the technical difficulties of propellant leakage for three consecutive days, analyzed the status of nearly 500 valves, 1,600 meters of pipelines and other equipment and facilities, and organized 8 leakage drills. The leakage plan was refined to the minute level, accurate to every action and every password, and strived to minimize the risk. On June 23, accompanied by a loud roar and refueling, the Long March III B carrier rocket lifted the last global networking satellite of the Beidou III into space, marking a successful conclusion to the Beidou launch mission: 44 launches were 100% successful.
This year’s Beidou final launch has caught up with the COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control. Many test teams and hundreds of scientific and technological personnel gathered at the launch site, and the task implementation process has been twists and turns. Everyone must not only win the final battle of networking, but also fight the battle of epidemic prevention and control well. There can be no problems on both lines. Faced with the particularly severe situation, all parties involved in the test think and work hard to work together, take the initiative to think from a different perspective, and stick to their responsibilities together. At the overall level, the "unified law" was carefully carried out to coordinate resources, forces, and work; the test teams repeatedly did "subtraction" to minimize on-site personnel, minimize work processes, and minimize various risks; the launch site made every effort to "add", strengthen prevention and control measures, increase security efforts, step up efforts to solve difficulties, and work together to overcome difficulties, effectively ensuring the "double victory" of the launch mission and the epidemic prevention in the site area.
According to statistics, since the Beidou satellite navigation system project was launched, more than 400 units and more than 300,000 scientific and technological personnel have participated in the research and construction across the country. Chen Fangyun and Sun Jiadong, two "two bombs and one star" founders and dozens of academicians of the two academies, led the expedition. The number of domestic satellite navigation and location-based service enterprises and institutions is about 14,000, and the number of employees exceeds 500,000, forming the Pearl River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Hubei-Henan-Hunan, Sichuan-Shaanxi-Chongqing five industrial zones.
The "global age" has arrived
With the official launch of the Beidou-3 global satellite navigation system, Beidou services will be shared by more countries and people, from domestic to foreign countries, from regional to global
With the official launch of the Beidou-3 global satellite navigation system, the "global era" belonging to Beidou has arrived. From domestic to foreign, from regional to global, Beidou services will be shared by more countries and people.
There are currently four major global satellite navigation systems in the world, namely GPS in the United States, GlONASS in Russia, Galileo in the European Union and Beidou in China. Beidou-3 has entered the global satellite navigation system family with world-class performance, and will provide users around the world with faster positioning speed and better user experience navigation and positioning services. Compared with the other three global satellite positioning systems, Beidou is the only constellation with three orbits. Beidou’s geostationary orbit and inclined synchronous orbit can make the Asia-Pacific region almost permanently visible to at least 12 satellites, greatly improving the positioning accuracy of the region.
In June 2020, after the deployment of the Beidou-3 global system constellation was completed, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs sent a special video to congratulate the Beidou system on completing the global networking deployment, affirming that the Beidou system is promoting global economic and social development, and appreciating the Beidou system’s great contribution to the peaceful use of outer space and participation in international cooperation in UN space activities.
In recent years, the Chinese government has been committed to promoting international cooperation in the field of satellite navigation. Bilateral cooperation has gone deeper and deeper. The Sino-Russian Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement on Satellite Navigation has come into effect, providing organizational and legal guarantees for cooperation such as the mutual construction of monitoring stations between China and Russia. Beidou and GlONASS systems have achieved signal compatibility; China and the United States have achieved signal compatibility and interoperability of Beidou and GPS systems; China and the EU have deepened frequency coordination. Continue to promote the compatibility and sharing of multiple systems, so that users around the world can better enjoy the benefits brought by multiple systems.
Significant results have been achieved in multilateral cooperation. Active voice on multilateral platforms such as the United Nations Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG), and successfully held two ICG conferences. Successfully held the China-Arab Beidou Cooperation Forum and the China-Central Asia Beidou Cooperation Forum, expanded cooperation platforms with "Belt and Road Initiative" countries and international organizations, and continued to expand Beidou "Moments".
Beidou applications continue to land overseas. As the only satellite navigation system with navigation and short message communication functions, Beidou’s advantage was fully realized as early as the 2015 Nepal earthquake. According to Chen Suzhen, the leader of the Xiamen Blue Sky Rescue Team who participated in the rescue at that time, poor communication between the rescue teams of various countries became the biggest obstacle to the rescue. Because China Beidou can send short messages, Nepal’s headquarters dispatched Chinese rescue teams to the most remote and serious places affected by the disaster.
The contribution of China’s Beidou is also accompanied by the continuous extension of the "Space Silk Road". In the countries around our country and along the "Belt and Road Initiative", Pakistan’s transportation and port management, Myanmar’s land planning and river transportation supervision, Laos’ precision agriculture, disease and pest disaster supervision, Brunei’s urban modernization, smart tourism, Indonesia’s maritime integrated application, China’s Beidou has been present in different fields in different countries.
In recent years, with the increase of economic and trade exchanges, the number of cross-border passenger and freight vehicles between our country and neighboring countries has continued to increase, which has also increased the difficulty of relevant management departments in managing cross-border passenger and freight vehicles. The navigation and positioning services provided by the Beidou system are the key to improving the safety management capabilities of cross-border transportation vehicles. Russia is the first country to use satellite navigation systems with our country to manage cross-border vehicles between the two countries. At present, China and Russia have completed the development of the cross-border transportation vehicle supervision system, and installed Beidou/GlONASS compatible end points on some Chinese and Russian passenger and freight vehicles, and carried out practice running activities on the access system.
At the press conference for the first anniversary of the Beidou-3 system providing global services, Ran Chengqi, director of the China Satellite Navigation System Management Office and spokesperson for the Beidou satellite navigation system, said that only by strengthening cooperation between satellite navigation systems can we jointly promote the development of spatiotemporal information and high-tech. For China’s Beidou, "independent, open, compatible and gradual" has always been the main tone of development. Our country has always adhered to the development concept of "China’s Beidou, the world’s Beidou" and actively promoted international cooperation on the Beidou system.
Beidou provides global services, which is a big step in the construction of Beidou and a new starting point for the development of Beidou. As Academician Sun Jiadong said, "The global satellite navigation system has become an indispensable spatial information infrastructure for the economy and society, and it will benefit human life and economic development. Today, Beidou has become an important force that cannot be ignored in the global satellite navigation system, an important cooperation project in our country’s foreign exchanges, and has significantly enhanced our country’s international status and influence."
Life is better because of it
"Integrated development, interconnection of all things", "Beidou +" makes life more convenient and exciting, and the Beidou system is entering all walks of life and thousands of households, becoming an indispensable necessity in daily life
As a major national space infrastructure, Beidou provides public service products, just like electricity and wireless networks, which must be realized through end point services. Therefore, "integrated development and interconnection of all things" has always been the basic policy of Beidou application promotion. Through the interconnection of all things, "Beidou +" makes life more convenient and exciting.
On May 12, 2008, an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale struck Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province. The outside world was unable to obtain the situation in the earthquake area in time, which became the biggest obstacle to rescue work. In an emergency, the China Satellite Navigation Application Management Center urgently equipped thousands of Beidou user end points for the rescue troops. At around 22:00 on May 12, the first batch of armed police officers and soldiers arrived in the earthquake-hit area and used the Beidou satellite navigation system user end point machine to send back real-time disaster data one after another overnight, sending out the first life emergency radio waves for the earthquake-hit areas. It was also that disaster that made the name "Beidou" a household name.
Twelve years later, today’s Beidou application has far exceeded the imagination of the year. On April 30, 2020, our country’s "2020 Mount Everest Elevation Measurement" was officially launched. 45 years after the first accurate measurement and announcement of the elevation of Mount Everest, the Chinese once again measured the "height" of the world’s largest peak. Unlike the past, this measurement, China’s Beidou navigation system provided the main data for scientific researchers.
In the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, Beidou’s contribution is also obvious to all. Beidou plant protection drones in Beijing and Hubei are widely used for disinfection and epidemic prevention in the region. A single drone spraying area can cover 5,000 square meters, and it can penetrate into dead ends that cannot be reached by epidemic prevention vehicles. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of Beidou end points have entered the logistics industry. Through Beidou precise positioning, the location information is clear at a glance. Some logistics companies also provide material transportation and distribution to some isolated communities through robots. The "Beidou +" information products formed by the combination of Beidou and the Internet, mobile communication networks, big data, and cloud computing can accurately locate the movement trajectories of infected people and release them to the public, providing key data support for big cities, especially grassroots communities, to do a good job in prevention and control.
The construction of Huoshenshan and Leishenshan Hospitals in Wuhan is urgent and every second counts. "Thousands of tall buildings rise from the ground", high-precision fixed-point positioning is the benchmark, and fast and accurate measurement is the foundation. On the evening of New Year’s Eve, the staff heard the order and went to the Huoshenshan Hospital construction site. Beidou high-precision positioning equipment rushed to help, ensuring that most of the site’s wiring measurements were completed at one time, which bought precious time for the rapid construction of the hospital.
Today, the Beidou system has been applied to all walks of life and has entered thousands of households. Like water and electricity, it has become an indispensable necessity in people’s daily lives, ubiquitous and accessible.
The newly built Beijing Daxing International Airport, relying on Beidou’s high-precision integrated positioning solution, has become the first large airport in the country to achieve sub-meter positioning of baggage handling vehicles indoors. There is still much value in achieving high-precision indoor positioning in airports. For airport management, indoor positioning will be the core infrastructure of the Internet of Things. In the future, the supervision and scheduling of personnel and items in the airport, track traceability, and big data analytics will rely on indoor positioning for data collection. For passengers, high-precision indoor positioning has the opportunity to provide them with more convenient navigation or reminder services.
People take food as their heaven, and food as their priority. Using Beidou positioning and network technology, the "Beidou Cuisine" sold in the market can be tracked by scanning the QR code to track where it grows, who grows it, and what fertilizer is applied. Nowadays, more and more vegetable farmers have joined the "Beidou Cuisine" network platform to "correct the name" of their green vegetables. Fruit cultivation, animal husbandry, and even traditional Chinese medicine production in some places have begun to use Beidou end points for traceability management and whole-process monitoring, and the food and drug safety issues that people are concerned about are expected to be solved technically.
In the past, people were often on the road when they were on the road. Nowadays, with the addition or use of Beidou’s electronic maps, car-hailing software, shared bicycles, and location sharing, you can walk away more willfully. Large buses, school buses, dangerous goods transporters, etc. are mandatory to install Beidou end points. Overtime, speeding, and non-compliance with the prescribed route are promptly warned, and the traffic violation rate and accident casualty rate are each reduced by 50%. Set up Beidou electronic fence, and the disorderly parking of shared bicycles is effectively controlled.
According to the white paper on China’s Beidou satellite navigation system, the Beidou system has been widely used in the fields of transportation, agriculture, forestry and fishery, hydrological monitoring, meteorological forecasting, communication timing, power dispatching, disaster relief and mitigation, public safety, etc., serving the country’s important infrastructure and generating significant economic and social benefits.
Looking back at the beginning, when many countries did not hesitate to invest heavily in the development of global satellite navigation systems, Academician Yang Jiachi, the founder of our country’s "two bombs and one star", clearly pointed out that China’s civilian satellite navigation market is vast and the potential economic benefits are huge, which is an important factor for sustainable development in the future.
In 2018, the total output value of satellite navigation and location-based service industry in our country reached 301.60 billion yuan, of which Beidou contributed 80% to the core value of the industry, and the related output value driven by satellite navigation derivatives reached 194.70 billion yuan. In 2019, the total output value of satellite navigation and location-based service industry in our country reached 345 billion yuan, an increase of 14.4% over 2018. The huge market for satellite navigation services is still growing rapidly. After Beidou completes global networking, it will usher in a new era of deepening application and golden development.
Empowering the Future
The integrated development of Beidou with new technologies such as the Internet, big data, and artificial intelligence is building an emerging industrial ecological chain with Beidou spatiotemporal information as the main content
With the successful launch of the last global network satellite of Beidou-3 in our country, a small application of "Beidou, Beidou, please answer when you receive it" also exploded WeChat Moments. This small application jointly released by CCTV News and Chihiro Location, through the "real-time data monitoring system of space-time intelligent satellites", not only informed people of the number of Beidou satellites above their heads, but also saw the real-time running track of each satellite, and even the real-time longitude and latitude, altitude, three-dimensional rate and other information of each satellite.
Until today, many people still have a misunderstanding that GPS is synonymous with satellite navigation systems. In fact, today’s satellite navigation is already compatible with multiple systems, including GPS, GlONASS, Galileo, and of course, China’s Beidou. Whether a mobile phone end point uses the Beidou system depends on whether the chip supports the Beidou system.
In recent years, with the development of the Beidou application industry, mainstream chip manufacturers at home and abroad have launched communication integrated chips compatible with the Beidou system. According to statistics, as of the third quarter of 2019, 151 mobile phones applied for network access in the Chinese market have positioning functions, of which 110 support Beidou positioning. Domestic Beidou companies use Beidou ground-based enhancement stations to provide centimeter-level positioning, millimeter-level sensing, and nano-level timing precision space-time services. The accelerated positioning services provided cover 220 countries and regions, and the global user scale exceeds 390 million. Yu Jiejin, director of Qianxun Location Market, said that when the last satellite of Beidou-3 global networking was successfully launched, this small application was launched in the hope that everyone could better perceive that Beidou is by our side.
The reason why Chihiro’s location allows people to "call Beidou" anytime, anywhere is through the ground-based enhancement system, the star-based enhancement system’s star-earth integration ability and the global station network system, to build a real-time seamless "star-earth integration" high-precision time and space network, so that end users can access this service anytime, anywhere through the Internet, which is equivalent to providing an "enhanced version" of Beidou.
On June 23, 2020, Qianxun Location Network Co., Ltd. announced that the number of users of Beidou Acceleration Assisted Location Service independently developed by our country has broken through 500 million, covering most Android mobile phones in China. This service will take more than 30 seconds. The initial positioning time is shortened to 3 seconds, which greatly enhances the user’s positioning experience.
With the completion of Beidou’s global networking, Beidou has accelerated the popularization of location services, which is of great significance for the large-scale application of Beidou. The integrated development of Beidou with new technologies such as the Internet, big data, and artificial intelligence is building an emerging industrial ecological chain with Beidou spatiotemporal information as the main content, and is becoming a new engine and booster for the rapid development of Beidou’s industry. It is promoting the transformation of production and lifestyle and the continuous innovation of business models, giving birth to new economic development models and new industrial development formats such as precision agriculture, precision logistics, autonomous driving, intelligent transportation, and smart cities.
The global coverage of the Beidou system and OurHours Unicom will promote the accelerated arrival of the era of Internet of Everything. "Beidou + Logistics", packaging can automatically select packaging boxes according to the volume and weight of goods, delivery can be automatically sorted and distributed according to the address, and buyers can know the whereabouts of the purchased goods at any time; "Beidou + Payment" can accurately queue up hundreds of stock and ticket purchase applications within 1 second, and process them in sequence; by accurately grasping the changes in vehicle location and the length of time, it can quickly and accurately complete highway driving payment, parking charges in public places, and automatic vehicle charging metering from the cloud.
Chen Jinpei, CEO of Chihiro Location, pointed out that the frequency of use of the billion-level is just the beginning. With the advent of the Internet of Things era, the users of space-time services will be tens of billions of "robots", and their demand for space-time services will be higher and more dependent. The frequency of use will increase geometrically.
Ran Chengqi pointed out that with the development of information technology, the three pillar industries of Internet, mobile communication and satellite navigation are achieving close integration and cross-border integration. Government departments are also responding to the trend of development and change in the field of information technology, and actively promoting the integrated development of Beidou and big data, cloud computing and the Internet, and mobile communication.
Chen Guancang, deputy director of the China Satellite Navigation System Management Office, said that if the Beidou system wants to provide good service, it needs to make further efforts in technological innovation and management innovation to promote the development of leading applications.
conclusion
Since the establishment of the Beidou No. 1 project, it has been 26 years of ups and downs. In order to realize the common dream, several generations of Beidou people have continued to struggle, and hundreds of thousands of builders have come together to support them. In the great journey of the rejuvenation of a powerful country, they have refreshed "China’s speed" again and again, showing "China’s precision" and demonstrating "China’s bearing".
Xiongguan Mandao is really like iron, and now we are moving forward from scratch. Looking back, the original intention of the Beidou people to become a strong country will never change; looking forward to the future, it is the right time for the Beidou stars to shine all over the world.
(All the pictures in this article are provided by the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group and Xichang Satellite Launch Center)
