Tens of thousands of satellites will go to the sky, but satellite Internet consumer-grade terminals have not yet formed
The number of satellites that can be accommodated in low orbit is limited. From a national perspective, both frequency and orbital position are strategic resources.
Because of this, various countries and major commercial giants have made efforts to satellite Internet in recent years.
The satellite Internet field is surging.
According to foreign media, the latest report submitted by the US space exploration technology company SpaceX to the US Federal Communications Commission in early September showed that the company plans to regularly launch 120 Starlink satellites every month.
Prior to this, SpaceX successfully launched the 12th batch of Starlink Internet satellites.
In China, the satellite factory of Beijing Jiutian MSI Technology Development Co., Ltd. has started construction in Tangshan, Hebei.
After the initial project is completed, the project will have an annual production capacity of 100 satellites.
This is also China's first private satellite R&D and manufacturing plant.
With the inclusion of satellite Internet in the scope of new infrastructure construction this year, capital and industry quickly followed up.
2020 is also called the "first year" of satellite Internet by the industry.
Low-orbit Internet constellation becomes the focus of competition
The satellite Internet that SpaceX entered into the public eye is not new.
Aerospace expert Huang Zhicheng told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that satellite Internet is the third-generation Internet infrastructure after wired and wireless Internet.
It includes geostationary orbit high-throughput satellites, medium-earth orbit Internet constellations and low-earth orbit Internet constellations.
"Because the first two have been widely used, the current focus of the industry is the low-orbit Internet constellation." He said.
Huang Zhicheng said that the small satellite technology developed in the 1980s has played a huge role in promoting the development of constellations.
In the early 1990s, due to the development of mobile communications and the Internet, non-geostationary orbiting communication satellite constellations represented by "Iridium" and "Global Star" developed rapidly, setting off the first climax of the construction of satellite Internet.
The industry has successively proposed a number of low-medium orbit Internet constellations, including the "Telidis" constellation proposed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and the "Bridge in the Sky" constellation proposed by French Alcatel.
However, under the impact of the rapid development of terrestrial mobile communication systems, satellite constellations have not been widely used due to high construction costs.
Thanks to SpaceX's successful rocket design, manufacturing and launch capabilities, Musk proposed the Starlink plan in 2015.
The plan intends to use 42,000 satellites to replace traditional communication facilities on the ground, thereby providing low-cost, high-speed and stable satellite broadband services worldwide.
"Compared with high-orbit satellites, low-orbit Internet constellations have shorter transmission delays, fewer path losses, and lower costs, which can meet the needs of areas where terrestrial networks are not connected. This is also a country's strategic needs." Co-founder of Jiutian MSI Peng Yuanyuan analysis.
As of 2019, nearly half of the world's people still have no Internet connection, which means that the vast majority of the population in developing countries in the world cannot enjoy high-quality mobile phone communication and online experience.
The terrestrial internet only covers 20% of the earth's land area and 5.8% of the earth's surface. Satellite internet is a very good complementary solution.
"The number of satellites that can be accommodated in low orbits is limited. From a national perspective, frequency and orbital positions are strategic resources." Peng Yuanyuan said that because of this, countries and major commercial giants have launched satellite Internet in recent years.
In addition, Huang Zhicheng added that satellite Internet will be the most important means of military command, control and communication.
Data shows that as of the end of December 2019, the number of satellites in orbit around the world is about 2,218, and the number is expected to expand tenfold in the next 10 years, with the increase mainly coming from low-orbit communication satellites.
The development of global satellite Internet has entered the fast lane
According to foreign media reports, in the past two years, SpaceX has invested more than one million US dollars in the Starlink project; now it can produce 120 satellites per month; it has deployed more than 650 satellites so far, making it the world's largest satellite constellation.
SpaceX also revealed that it will accelerate the deployment of the Starlink constellation, and plans to use the Falcon 9 rocket launch system to send 120 Starlink satellites into orbit every month.
In addition, a number of low-orbit Internet constellation projects are being advanced, including Amazon’s Kuiper Project, which plans to launch 3236 network satellites into low-Earth orbit, and the TeleSat LEO project of Canada’s TeleSat.
In my country, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation "Hongyun Project" and China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation "Hongyan Constellation" successfully launched test stars.
The “Xingyun Project”, my country’s first self-invested and constructed low-orbit narrowband IoT satellite constellation, built and operated by Xingyun Company, a subsidiary of China Aerospace Sanjiang Group, plans to build a constellation composed of 80 low-orbit communication satellites around 2023. In order to solve the problem of communication blind spots caused by insufficient ground cellular communication network coverage for Internet of Things services.
Private aerospace companies also continue to make efforts in this field.
A group of satellite Internet companies represented by MSI and Yinhe Aerospace are gaining momentum.
Jiutian MSI Smart Satellite Factory started construction on September 1 in Tangshan, Hebei.
Peng Yuanyuan introduced that as the nine-day MSI satellite research and development base, this factory will be initially completed and put into production in 2021, and it is planned to achieve an annual production capacity of more than 100 satellites in the 100 kg class.
MSI's satellite factory is not only a satellite assembly production base, but also a satellite technology and application research and development laboratory.
"We will introduce intelligent and pulsating industrial production lines into the satellite manufacturing field, which will change the traditional satellite manufacturing model and serve the national satellite Internet new infrastructure construction needs through mass production." Peng Yuanyuan said.
According to relevant research and calculations of Guotai Junan Securities, the scale of satellites in the domestic low-orbit satellite system is expected to reach the level of 3000-6000 in the next 10 years.
In 2030, China's overall satellite Internet market can reach a scale of 100 billion yuan.
Public data shows that in the first half of 2020, China's satellite Internet-related companies newly registered 1,128, a year-on-year increase of 158%.
"In the next few years, the domestic Internet satellite industry is expected to usher in explosive growth, and mass production of communication satellites of more than 100 kilograms will become a rigid demand for the industry." Peng Yuanyuan said, "From this perspective, 2020 will not only be the key to satellite Internet development. Year’s will also be a “watershed” for China’s commercial aerospace."
Digging deep applications in various industries is the key
Those who get the application get the world, and the same is true in the field of satellite Internet.
The ground terminal and application market is gaining momentum.
Peng Yuanyuan believes that the biggest challenge of satellite Internet is application.
"The development of the ground terminal accelerates the application demonstration of enterprise end users, and breaks through the early bottleneck of industrialization. The coordinated development of the entire industry chain is the key."
Huang Zhicheng holds the same view.
"In terms of application, the biggest technical difficulty is the development of receiving terminals. To reach the level that ordinary consumers can use, it is more difficult to develop terminals the size of mobile phones." Huang Zhicheng said.
"Satellite launch may be a market of hundreds of billions, and the terminal products of satellite Internet are trillions of dollars, and applications are a market full of imagination without ceilings." Peng Yuanyuan analyzed that in order to meet this market, nine days of MSI's talent team and technology The reserves and other aspects have been deployed in advance.
"In addition to satellite manufacturing, our technical staff also have senior communications personnel from international giants, as well as practitioners from different fields such as oil exploration." Peng Yuanyuan said that the purpose of this configuration is to tap the future of satellite Internet in various industries. In-depth application.
She gave an example, “Some time ago, the human-elephant conflict in Xishuangbanna attracted everyone’s attention. Later, the client gave us this project. We put a collar on the elephant and tracked its trajectory in real time through satellite monitoring. The area of human activity will call the police.” Similar applications can be extended to various fields such as full traceability of ocean-going ships and haze monitoring.
Huang Zhicheng revealed that the current national-level satellite Internet project plan is being deployed. “The initial infrastructure construction may still be based on the national team. Private enterprises can play an important role in the design and manufacture of terminals and ground stations, explore application models, and reduce costs. effect".
"Assembling funds and talents from all fields, doing a good job in the top-level design and plan optimization of the project, and vigorously innovating, to build an integrated satellite Internet of space and earth as soon as possible, will surely promote my country's aerospace technology and space economy to a new level." Huang Zhicheng said.
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100,000 satellite launch plan to promote satellite mass production
In the traditional sense, aerospace applications belong to the “national team” field. The satellites launched are usually in geosynchronous orbits and are designed and manufactured by customized production methods. Theoretically, the launch cycle takes 26-32 months. This is also due to the long production cycle and technology. And the cost threshold is high.
As of the end of 2019, China has more than 300 satellites in orbit, while the number of satellites in orbit globally is 2,218.
However, in the next 10 years, 100,000 low-orbit satellites will be likely to redefine the "star-and-spread" in space: SpaceX's "Starlink Project" 42,000, Oneweb constellation 48,000, Amazon's "Kuiper Project" 3236... …The domestic satellite constellation plan has also been launched.
According to incomplete statistics, there are 10 projects with more than 30 launches. The "Hongyan Constellation" with the Chinese prefix plans to launch more than 300 satellites, and the "Hongyun Project" plans to launch 156 satellites.
Such a huge launch plan has forced fundamental changes in satellite design and production methods.
The satellites launched by the constellation plan are basically in low-earth orbits within 2000 kilometers from the earth. The satellites are small in size, light in weight, and short in orbit life. The constellation networking method can achieve one-time demonstration, design, and mass production. The production cycle is reduced to several weeks or even days.
All these make it possible for commercial capital to enter satellite production.