Low-orbit satellites have recently become a hot topic of international concern. China has just disclosed that the US Starlink satellite has approached the Chinese space station twice, and the outside world has speculated about its motives, and another report in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post has attracted many attentions.
"China's small commercial satellite Beijing-3 may be one of the most powerful Earth observation satellites ever built, capturing images of downtown San Francisco (3,800 square kilometers) in just 42 seconds in a 500-kilometer orbit."
After launching in June, the Beijing-3 small commercial satellite conducted a deep scan of the san francisco bay area's core area of about 3,800 square kilometers during testing. The images were taken from a 500 km orbit with a resolution of 50 cm per pixel. "The image is clear enough to identify a military vehicle on the street and determine what type of weapon it might be carrying."
Photos of the San Francisco area taken by the Beijing-3 satellite
At the same time, a number of foreign media have also paid attention to this news. According to the U.S. techeblog website, "China's 'Beijing III' satellite captured incredible high-resolution images of San Francisco in 42 seconds"; "Russia Today" (RT) said that "Chinese satellites took high-resolution images of san Francisco in seconds"; Iran's Tasnim News Agency also said, "Researchers: Agile Chinese satellites capture high-resolution images of American cities in seconds"; India's Winonews website said, "There are reports, Chinese satellites can take images of American cities in seconds. ”
Screenshot of a report on the US "techeblog" website
Screenshot of the "Russia Today" (RT) report
The research team led by Yang Fang, project chief engineer of Aerospace Dongfanghong Satellite Co., Ltd., said in a paper published in the journal Spacecraft Engineering that China started quite late in agile satellite technology, but in a short period of time, it has made many major breakthroughs. "They stressed that this level of technology has reached the world's leading position."
The Russian satellite network quoted the report on the 28th that although the "Beijing III" is small in size and low in cost, it is the most flexible satellite and may be one of the most powerful Earth observation satellites ever built. In particular, its reaction speed is 2-3 times faster than WorldView-4, one of the world's most advanced observation satellites developed by the United States with similar technology, and the scanning tape is 77% wider than it, but it is only half its weight.
In addition, the South China Morning Post also said that usually most Earth observation satellites must remain stable when taking images, otherwise they will produce vibrations that blur the images. And satellites in lower orbits can only observe a narrow and long area below, so they must orbit the Earth multiple times or work with other satellites to cover the "area of interest".
Beijing No. 3, on the other hand, rotates at a speed of 10 degrees per second to take these high-precision photos of San Francisco, a mode that allows it to change the angle of view of the airborne camera to the ground, and then capture a wider range of ground information.
In addition, "the 'Beijing-3' satellite uses artificial intelligence technology to plan its own flight routes, and can make nearly 100 round-trips a day to monitor as many as 500 areas of concern around the world." In addition, it can detect the presence of certain targets and transmit relevant photos back to the ground command center."
Simulation of Beijing No. 3 in orbit
According to public reports, the "Beijing No. 3" satellite successfully launched on June 11 with the Long March 2 Ding carrier rocket at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. It is a high-performance new type of optical remote sensing satellite, using a large number of innovative technologies, will effectively improve the data supply capacity of China's high-resolution remote sensing satellites.
According to reports, "Beijing No. 3" is loaded with a panchromatic and multispectral dual camera, which can obtain satellite images with a panchromatic 0.5-meter and multi-spectral 2-meter resolution, and achieve ultra-high agility, ultra-high stability, and ultra-high precision observation capabilities. It also uses intelligent task planning, intelligent image processing and intelligent composite control technologies. These innovative technologies enable the Beijing-3 satellite to not only have a powerful image acquisition capability, but also provide a unique imaging mode.
Yang Fang, chief engineer of the "Beijing No. 3" satellite model, said in an interview, "For example, it can actively scan the imaging along any track such as rivers and highways." Such a transit can obtain high-definition images of the entire Yangtze River basin, and can also perform rapid multi-angle imaging to obtain three-dimensional stereoscopic information of the feature in all directions. The Beijing-3 satellite will work in coordination with the Beijing-2 remote sensing satellite constellation system operating in orbit, which will provide important support for major national needs such as the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities, the construction of major projects such as the Beijing Winter Olympics and the Xiong'an New Area, and the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei. ”
What the old driver wants to say is that the purpose of China's development and launch of the "Beijing Iii" satellite is to meet the needs of national construction. The South China Morning Post, on the other hand, insisted on tying its satellite photographs with special imaging modes to military use. Whether it is the so-called "identification of ground military vehicles" or "repeated monitoring of sensitive targets on the ground", it is obvious that readers are associated with the direction of "China has developed small satellites for special military purposes".
What the hell is this trying to do?
However, this matter made the old driver want to say more. The "Beijing-3" satellite and the US Starlink satellite, which caused a sensation on the whole network yesterday, "twice approached the Chinese space station", both operate at an orbital altitude of about 500 kilometers, and are both low-orbit satellites. Although SpaceX currently claims that the Starlink satellite is only used to provide network services, using the satellite as a platform can be easily and quickly converted to other uses by changing the payload, including optical or radar imaging satellites. In fact, both the Beijing Iii and the U.S. WorldView-4, as previously mentioned in the report, show that the new advanced optical cameras are sufficient to be installed on such small satellite platforms.
As experts warned yesterday, once the Starlink satellite replaces the optical observation payload, with a huge number of orbits, it can ensure that several American satellites fly in the direction of the zenith in every time period in major regions of the world, allowing the United States to achieve 24-hour uninterrupted optical monitoring.
That's the real threat.
Privy Council No. 10 / Old Driver Ma Zhitu
Source: World Wide Web