In a move that might have worldwide repercussions, China unveiled a strategic blueprint for developing its Beidou location and navigation system by 2035.
According to the “Beidou Satellite Navigation System Development Plan before 2035,” published by the China Satellite Navigation System Management Office (CNSO) on Nov. 28, the nation intends to launch three test satellites around 2027 and finish important technology research for the next-generation Beidou system by 2025.
Around 2029, the Beidou system’s next generation of networking satellites will be launched. The next-generation Beidou system is expected to be finished by 2035.
China already has a Beidou system with 30 satellites that provides location, navigation, and timing services all over the world. With the exception of backups, it has 24 satellites in medium Earth orbits, eight in each plane. Three Beidou satellites are in geostationary orbit, while three are in inclined geosynchronous orbit.
According to the study, satellites in high (presumably geosynchronous) and medium Earth orbits will be used by the updated Beidou system.
With accuracy ranging from meter-level to decimeter-level, the new system will offer real-time, highly accurate, and dependable navigation, location, and timing services throughout Earth and near-Earth areas, according to state media Global Times.
The system will interface with various non-satellite-based navigation and timing technologies and support user terminals that extend from the surface of the Earth to deep space.
In addition to assisting industry, agriculture, and banking, Beidou, like the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) and other European and Russian systems, is utilized for civilian purposes like driving, aircraft, and sea navigation globally. They are also used in the military for battlefield navigation, UAVs, and precision-guided weapons.
Notably, in certain regions, the system is already generally regarded as being better than the GPS. The National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board (PNTAB) claims that GPS’s capabilities are already “substantially inferior to those of China’s Beidou.” Even though Beidou offers special benefits including regional precision and two-way communication, GPS continues to lead the world in terms of adoption and some technological standards.
According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) assessment, there are ongoing delays and technological difficulties in the United States’ efforts to update GPS.
China might significantly outperform the US and other nations in PNT capabilities with an upgraded, next-generation Beidou. This may make it the preferred system, increasing its economic and commercial clout, establishing China as a global supplier of public goods, strengthening its soft power, and offering improved military capabilities.
This endeavor complements China’s larger national program for a Space-Ground Integrated Information Network (SGIIN), which seeks to integrate weather forecasting, navigation, communications, remote sensing, and other satellite services into a single system. By joining SGIIN, Beidou might become much more useful and firmly establish its place in the world’s satellite system.
China has already established remote sensing infrastructure in space with its Gaofen and Yaogan systems, and it plans to build at least two low Earth orbit megaconstellations for communications. In October 2000, China launched its first Beidou satellite. In September, a Long March 3B rocket launched the last two backup Beidou-3 satellites, the 59th and 60th launched throughout the program.