China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Beidou maps out a growing path to international success
Navigation network expanding across the globe as more countries use the system
China’s Beidou Navigation Satellite System has been bringing benefits to nations involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, according to the China Satellite Navigation Office.
The office said that the Chinese space-based positioning and navigation network is being used in a number of countries covered by the initiative such as Russia, Indonesia, Kuwait and the Maldives.
In Russia, electricity grid inspectors use Beidou-based handheld devices to locate and report their whereabouts. In Indonesia, land resources administrators employ Beidou-based devices in survey and construction of roads, railways and irrigation works. Beidou has also helped the building of a Kuwaiti skyscraper, collection of agricultural data in Myanmar as well as government drone operations in Cambodia, according to the office.
The Belt and Road Initiative, a far-reaching development plan proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt, which will link China with Europe through Central and Western Asia, and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which stretches from southern China to Southeast Asia, and farther to Africa. The initiative is estimated to benefit about 4.4 billion people in 65 nations and regions, according to the Chinese government.
Beidou is one of the four space-based navigation networks along with the United States’ GPS, Russia’s GLONASS and the European Union’s Galileo.
Since 2000, when the first Beidou satellite entered orbit, 47 system satellites, including four experimental ones, have been launched and several have retired. Beidou began providing positioning, navigation, timing and messaging services to civilian users in China and parts of the Asia-Pacific region in December 2012.
The Beidou system started on Dec 27 providing global services, Ran Chengqi, director of the China Satellite Navigation Office, said at a news conference on the same day in Beijing. He added that it is scheduled to become complete around 2020.
Ran said that the primary system’s construction of Beidou’s third-generation constellation, or Beidou-3, has finished, enabling the network to provide reliable global positioning, navigation and timing services with high accuracy.
“This marks Beidou’s entry into a ‘global era’ from its ‘regional era’,” he said.
The official said 2018 was the busiest year in Beidou’s construction as the nation launched 19 satellites for the network. The latest were the 18th and 19th of the Beidou-3 series that were launched in late November.
By now, there are 33 satellites — 18 in Beidou’s third-generation and 15 in Beidou-2 — that are operational in several orbits, offering a global positioning service with 10-meter accuracy and an Asia-Pacific regional service with 5-m accuracy, he said.
Compared with the Beidou-2 satellites, the Beidou-3 model features higher accuracy and stability, clearer signal, and more stateof-the-art technologies such as inter-satellite link, satellite-based augmentation and global emergency search, he noted.
Lin Baojun, chief designer of Beidou-3 satellite, added that the new-generation satellite has cutting-edge atomic clocks — the most important parts on a navigation satellite, and better inter-satellite connectivity.
Before the end of 2020, China plans to send six Beidou-3 satellites to medium Earth orbit, three to inclined geosynchronous satellite orbit and two to geostationary orbit, Ran said, adding a Beidou-2 satellite will also be lifted to a geostationary orbit within this period.
By that time, Beidou will have around 30 satellites in service and will have better capabilities and services, the official said.
According to Ran’s office, Beidou has gained a large number of users in China — most of the shared bicycles in Chinese cities now employ Beidou-based positioning services. On top of that, more than 6 million taxis, buses and cargo trucks nationwide have been equipped with Beidou devices, and about two-thirds of smartphones in the Chinese market are able to access Beidou services.
In addition, there are more than 3,200 Beidou-based navigation facilities along rivers and lakes in China and nearly 3,000 on the oceans. More than 50,000 agricultural machines in China use Beidou-based services and benefited in terms of fuel consumption and agricultural yields.
Worldwide, Beidou-based devices have been sold to more than 90 countries. The system has been adopted by the standardization systems of several international institutions including the International Civil Aviation Organization and International Maritime Organization.