The "Thousand Sail Constellation", known as the Chinese version of the "Star Chain", was launched by the Long March 6 on August 6th.The Satellite Internet Constellation Plan to catch up with the prelude to the US " Star Chain (Starlink) " project.
The current traditional land mobile communications services only cover less than 6%of the surface area, and are restricted by the inherent characteristics. To achieve the high cost of laying of terrestrial base stations, it can only ensure urban coverage in the short term.The satellite Internet can be covered globally, and the network supplements to blind spots such as remote areas and oceans can be achieved.
The satellite Internet is mainly divided into two types: high -oriented and low -orbit.The operation height of the low -orbit satellite is usually between 300 kilometers and 2,000 kilometers.Compared with high -orbital satellites, the low -orbit satellite Internet has the advantages of low latency, low cost, and easy to achieve global coverage, and has higher transmission efficiency, and signal coverage is not subject to geographical restrictions.
The concept of low -orbital satellite Internet was first proposed by the American Science and Technology Rich Musk Space Exploration Technology Company (SpaceX) in 2014 that the company intends to replace ground communication facilities with 42,000 satellites and provide low prices globally globally.Satellite broadband services.As of early August this year, the "Star Chain" project of Space Exploration Technology Company has launched a total of 183 batches of 6,828 satellites.China is far behind this field.
Due to the limited number of satellites that can be accommodated by low -orbit spaces, nearly 60,000 to 100,000 satellites can be accommodated. Therefore, near -ground satellites need to apply for track and frequency band resources from the International Telecom Alliance (ITU).And because the International Telecommunications Alliance follows the principle of "first, first, first, first, first, and forever" in the rail and frequency band resources. In recent years, the global low -orbit satellite resources competition is very fierce.Rail satellite Internet networking plans, of which the "Star Chain" project is planned to deploy 42,000 satellites.
Seeing that the "Star Chain" project has been riding, China is naturally unwilling to fall behind.In 2020, China's first construction of satellite Internet construction to national strategic engineering.At present, the total number of satellites declared by many Chinese companies in the International Telecommunications Alliance has exceeded 50,000.Although the total amount of satellite launch plans declared by countries around the world has already exceeded the near -site track capacity, there is still a big gap between the actual number of satellite volume.Satellite power such as China and the United States are stepping up the implementation of low -orbit satellite networking.
The "Qianfan Constellation" plan, also known as the "G60 Star Chain", is a project led by Songjiang District, Shanghai, and coordinated with multiple investment institutions. The project's implementation subject is Shanghai Yuanxin Satellite.Earlier, Shanghai Yuanxin Satellite has completed the launch of five test stars. The 18 satellites launched on August 6 were the first group of net planets of the "Thousand Sail Constellation".
The technical characteristics of the "Qianfan Constellation" include: the use of flat -type high -throughput broadband communication satellites, with the advantages of being close to the ground, low cost, low power consumption, wide coverage, latency and so on.According to the plan, in 2025, the "Thousand Sailing Constellation" will complete the deployment of 648 satellites for a period, and initially build a global satellite Internet system.By the end of 2030, the "Qianfan Constellation" will create more than 10,000 low -orbit broadband multimedia satellite networking, which will provide global users with low -delay, high -speed and high -reliability satellite broadband Internet services.
According to CCTV reports, Lu Ben, senior vice president of Shanghai Yuanxin Satellite Technology Co., Ltd., said that the "Thousand Sailing Constellation" planned two stages. The first stage was to launch 1296 stars, which can have a global interconnection ability. CompletedA complete coverage of the world can provide comprehensive and diverse business services.In the future, we will reduce the height of satellite construction from more than 1,000 kilometers to 300 to 500 kilometers from the current first stage, providing more high -end applications for direct mobile phones and width belt Internet of Things.
Earlier, before launch, a satellite usually needs to be proclaimed by components and developed to the entire star production. It takes about three to five years.The number of satellites in the "Thousand Sailing Constellations" is huge. In order to accelerate the development efficiency, the Shanghai Micro Satellite Engineering Center has independently developed a satellite intelligent manufacturing platform to establish a modular and standardized satellite production line.At present, the production line has the ability to produce more than 300 satellites with an annual output. In the future, one -arrow 36 star launch will be supported to meet the needs of a large -scale constellation fast -moving network dense launch.
With the launch of the "Thousand Sailing Constellation", the scale of China's commercial aerospace industry chain will continue to expand.Everbright Securities pointed out that according to China's existing constellation plan, in the 10 years from 2023 to 2033, more than 12,000 satellites are expected to be launched.Xinyuan) drives more than 6 trillion ground equipment markets and nearly 5 trillion satellite service markets.
However, there are still many technical problems that need to be overcome to catch up with the "Star Chain".For example, in terms of cost, the current 1 kg of satellite launch costs are about $ 10,000 (S $ 13,200), and the launch cost of a single low -orbit communication satellite is about $ 2 million, while SpaceX emits a single low -orbital satellite satellite.The cost is only about $ 750,000.
At the same time, after the launch of the first star of the "Thousand Sailing Constellation", the Long March 6 changed the Rockets. After the release of the satellite, its last stage exploded on the rail of 810 kilometers from the ground, and at least 700 pieces were produced.These fragments may stay on the track for a long time, which pose a threat to the spacecraft of the same track.
Therefore, China still has a long way to go to reduce the cost of satellite launch, realize rocket recycling, and control the end of the rocket at the end of the rocket without explosion.
