Tiantong-1 03 satellite launched our first satellite mobile communication system and made important progress
Kong Xiaoyan Fu Yingli Our reporter Fu Yifei
At 0:25 on January 20, 2021, my country used the Long March 3B carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center to successfully launch the Tiantong-1 03 satellite.
While bringing a good start to China's space launch in 2021, it also marks my country's first satellite mobile communication system construction to make important progress.
Tiantong-1 03 is the third mobile communication satellite independently developed by the General Department of Communications and Navigation of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
After it is delivered in orbit, it will be networked and operated with Tiantong No.1 01 and 02 satellites, providing all-weather, all-weather, and stable users in my country and its surrounding areas, the Middle East, Africa and other related regions, as well as most sea areas in the Pacific and Indian Ocean. Reliable mobile communication services such as voice, short message and data.
The development of satellite mobile communications is an inevitable requirement of our country
Nowadays, people's demand for information acquisition and use is higher and higher, and satellite mobile communication can make up for the lack of ground mobile communication.
Bing Bingxiu, commander-in-chief of the Tiantong No. 1 satellite of the Fifth Institute, introduced that the satellite mobile communication system is mainly miniaturized mobile terminals, including ground personal mobile terminals, vehicle-mounted terminals, airborne terminals, shipborne terminals, etc., providing diversified medium and low speeds Communication services.
The system can achieve almost seamless coverage of oceans, mountains and plateaus, and meet the needs of various users for mobile communication coverage.
Because of its flexible mobility and portability, it has high civilian and commercial value.
After the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, in order to have an autonomous mobile communication satellite system, my country initiated the development of the Tiantong-1 satellite.
To this end, the Fifth Academy has broken through key technologies such as large-aperture deployable mesh antennas and multi-beam forming.
In 2016, the S-band large-capacity geosynchronous orbit mobile communication satellite Tiantong-1 01 was successfully launched, achieving a breakthrough in my country's mobile communication satellite zero.
Subsequently, the 02 star and 03 star started development.
Tiantong One will integrate with 5G for development
The reporter learned from the Fifth Institute that Tiantong-1 03 is based on the Dongfanghong-4 satellite platform. All core components are independently developed and key technologies have independent intellectual property rights.
Chen Mingzhang, chief designer of the Tiantong-1 satellite of the Fifth Academy, said that the successful development of the Tiantong-1 series of satellites enabled my country to have a satellite mobile communication system with independent intellectual property rights, marking my country’s entry into the development and application of new payloads and large platforms. Has become an international leader.
At the same time, it also shows that my country has reached a high technical level in the field of satellite design and manufacturing capabilities, platform technology, payload technology, basic components, raw materials, and ground simulation experiment verification technology, which has greatly improved the development level of subsequent similar satellites.
After the 03 satellite and 01 satellite, 02 satellite network, it will greatly expand the country and the surrounding seas of various handheld and small mobile terminals to provide voice and data communication coverage, to meet the diverse communication needs of more civilian and commercial users.
Mission rocket achieves two major changes
This mission is the 358th launch of the Long March series of carrier rockets.
According to Zhang Yipu, Deputy Chief Designer of the First Dean of the Aerospace Science and Technology Group, the Long March 3 Yiyao 74 carrier rocket used for the mission has two main changes: the first realization of the de-missioning of the instrument bay and the first trial of the launch site in a liquid rocket Zhuyuan design system.
Zhang Yipu said that in recent years, the Long Three A series of rockets have carried out de-mission design, and the rocket structure below the third stage has gradually achieved de-mission.
However, due to the different diameters of the main rockets-Changsanyi G2 and G3 rocket fairings, which are 4 meters and 4.2 meters, respectively, there are still two configurations of the instrument bays docked with them, and there are differences in local conditions, each configuration The instrument bay can only perform specific launch tasks.
The developers have unified the configuration of the instrument cabin through a large number of simulations and ground verification tests.
Now the rocket has been de-tasked from the instrument bay, the third stage, the second stage, and the first stage, which can be completely decoupled from the mission, and the mission adaptability is further improved.
The launch site design system mainly includes the targeting design module and the launch site wind compensation design module.
Among them, the Aiming Zhuyuan design module has been officially used, eliminating the previous links of manual calculation and transferring through paper documents, fully realizing the automatic calculation and transfer of data, improving work efficiency and effectively avoiding the risk of human error.
With the support and cooperation of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, the launch site wind compensation Zhuyuan design system began trial.