China provides global positioning services

By 2012, China will launch 8 more satellites to participate in Beidou (North Dau) orientation satellite. Beidou orientation satellite system is designed to provide short, time and positioning messaging services for the Asia-Pacific region before 2012 and will be able to provide global positioning services until in 2020.

Since the first launch of the Beidou 1 satellite on October 30, 2000, the program to build the satellite navigation system Beidou has achieved many steps with 8 satellites that have been put into orbit into public, towards building an independent satellite navigation system to escape dependence on the US GPS global positioning system.

6th Beidou satellite (Photo: Space).

From the proposed development of a regional orientation system using two geostationary satellites (satellites with circular orbits just above the Earth equator, it will rotate around the Earth in the same direction and tilt angle) of Chen Fangyun (China's leading defense scientist) in 1983, the Beidou directional satellite system project was started and officially started in 1993. By 2000, the launch of 2 satellite satellites The first direction of China is Beidou 1A and Beidou 1B made.

With the ambition of developing China's own satellite-oriented satellite system comparable to GLONASS, GPS, Galileo systems , China has now launched Beidou satellite launches including: Beidou 2A (2003 - projected) Room, 2007 - launch failed), Beidou 5 (2007), Beidou G2 (2009), Beidou DW3, Beidou G3, Beidou Igso1, Beidou G4, Beidou Igso2 (2010).

With the introduction of Beidou satellites into orbit, in 2000, China established BDStar Navigation company to enter into a joint venture with Novatel Group (Canada) to develop location and commercial exploitation services, namely develop and market GPS receivers .

Successful Long March-3C missiles leaving the launch pad at the Center for launching Tay Xuong satellite on November 1, 2010 brought the 6th Beidou satellite into orbit (Photo : Space ).

The project of Beidou satellite information services funded by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology was completed in 2001 and approved in January 2003, providing open applications for the Beidou navigation system. These services were successfully tested in December 2005 and first applied on Beidou directional machines on Chinese offshore fishing vessels.

In a speech at the second annual academic meeting on satellite navigation on May 18, Mr. Ran Chengqi said the Beidou satellite navigation system will complete comprehensive tests in October 2011 and capable of providing "preliminary" services for most Chinese territories.

By 2020, about 35 satellites will form Beidou global satellite navigation system. These include 5 geostationary satellites and 30 medium-range Earth orbit (MEO) satellites - at an altitude of 21,000km and an orbit of 55 degrees. MEO satellites will use the positioning principle as MEO satellites of GPS, GLONASS and Galileo systems. The signal connection from multiple satellites allows the user's receiver to calculate the position on Earth with high accuracy.

In addition to the above information, Mr. Ran also predicts China's satellite navigation area will reach about 400 billion yuan (61.84 billion dollars) in the annual output value by 2020.

The global satellite navigation system of countries

GPS: The US global positioning system consists of 32 Earth orbiting satellites (MEO) within six different orbital planes, the exact number of satellites always changing as the old satellites have to "retirement". The system has been operating since 1978 and provides global services in 1994. GPS is currently the most used satellite navigation system in the world.

GLONASS : Oriented satellite beam with full functionality built by the Soviet Union, however after the collapse of the Soviet Union, GLONASS was not repaired and only partially operated. The restoration was conducted in 2010.

Compass: The future global positioning system China plans to operate in 2020. The system is expanded from the Beidou region navigation system. The Compass system will consist of 30 MEO satellites and 5 geostationary satellites.

Galileo : The navigation system with an estimated value of 3 billion euros developed by the European Union and the European Space Agency began in March 2002 with the desire to escape from the rule of entering GPS. The first test satellite was launched on December 28, 2005. The system consists of 30 MEO satellites expected to operate in 2014 and provide full service by 2020.