HONG KONG — Chinese space and defense contractor CASIC says it’ll begin constructing a constellation of 300 satellites in very-low Earth orbit late this 12 months.
The very-low Earth orbit (VLEO) constellation is to consist of 192 satellites by 2027 to supply users with space information services every half an hour and be expanded to 300 satellites by 2030, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) revealed on the China Business Aerospace Forum held in town of Wuhan earlier this month.
CASIC plans to launch its first of its planned VLEO verification satellites in December. The primary satellite shall be geared towards demonstrating and verifying key technologies including VLEO orbital flight, high resolution Earth imaging, intelligent processing, and direct data transmission to user terminals.
VLEO refers to an altitude of 150 to 300 kilometers. At such low altitudes atmospheric drag means orbits aren’t stable and decay rapidly without regular use of propulsion to spice up altitude. Nevertheless satellites in such orbits could have benefits over those in traditional higher orbits.
“The VLEO communications and sensing integrated constellation, taking the natural benefits of shorter distance, low latency and low path loss, forges a constellation and application system that’s small but excellent, fast and intelligent, and requires a great quantity of satellites but is affordable,” CCTV quoted Zhang Nan, chief designer of the constellation at CASIC’s General Department of Space Engineering.
The CASIC constellation will use intelligent algorithms, direct satellite-to-satellite and low latency satellite-to-Earth communications.
“It’s space infrastructure that may offer users one-stop services covering sensing, transmission and computing,” Zhang said.
CASIC is engaged in a variety of space-related programs, including launch services, satellite production, an Web of Things narrowband constellation and a spaceplane project.
These projects are described as industrial and are separate from those of its sister giant state-owned conglomerate CASC, which is the country’s major space contractor for civil and military-related programs.
Chinese industrial firm C-Space launched what was described as China’s first VLEO satellite July 22. Qiankun-1 flew on a Galactic Energy Ceres-1 solid rocket and can test hyperspectral, optical and image processing payloads.
Nevertheless it joined one other payload in an initial 502 by 486-kilometer altitude inclined by 96 degrees, in keeping with U.S. Space Force tracking data.
Tomas Hrozensky, a senior research fellow on the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), told SpaceNews via email that China pursuing such capabilities and testing latest systems was a natural progression.
“The dimensions of the Chinese space programme and related political support favors and underpins a comprehensive capability development across a wide selection of concepts. This will reasonably have a positive impact on innovation, including if multiple such avenues of motion don’t reach a successful end, because of whatever reason.”
“The interest in VLEO matches the narrative of exploring and developing a breadth of initiatives, looking for to develop area of interest capabilities and expertise, which was already shown by China in other domains – in satellite applications, launchers, or exploration,” says Hrozensky.
VLEO satellites could potentially have quite a few advantages. “The available information suggests that VLEO can offer added value for each communications and distant sensing missions through impacts on technological features and functional characteristics that drive down the fee,” says Hrozensky.
These include lower power demands, a lower radiation environment, smaller and fewer complex sensors, and lower requirements by way of data transfer and launch requirements.
“The underlying problem, as usual, lies in overcoming the varied technical challenges in such a way that will make the specified activity reliable, protected, and profitable in case of business plans. For now, VLEO has not yet comprehensively passed such tests.”
Global distant sensing capabilities including higher resolution, more frequent revisits, and faster transmission speeds were noted as key space infrastructure in China’s 14th Five 12 months Plan, covering the period 2021-2025, in keeping with Science and Technology Every day.
Elsewhere, VLEO concepts have emerged within the U.S. and Europe lately. American firms Skeyeon, Earth Observant and Albedo have raised money for VLEO satellite plans, while the European Union funded the “Discoverer” research program to research deploying Earth statement satellites in much lower altitudes than usual.