Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

19:49 Beijing time on February 23, 2023, China successfully launched the China Star 26 satellite from the Xichang Satellite launch Center using the long March 3B carrier rocket. After the launch, the satellite entered the scheduled orbit smoothly, and the mission was a complete success.

As soon as the picture came out from the CCTV message, it immediately aroused widespread concern both inside and outside the industry. The reason is that this satellite is very special. It is the first high-throughput satellite with over 100 Gbps capacity in China, and it is an important milestone in the development of domestic satellite Internet technology.

Next, Xiao Zaojun will give you a detailed interpretation of what the successful launch of this satellite means.

The basic situation of Star 26 in █ first of all, let me introduce the basic situation of this satellite in detail.

The Zhongxing 26 satellite was developed by the Fifth Institute of Aerospace Science and Technology Group. After delivery, China Satcom, an aerospace science and technology group, will be responsible for operation and management, and will be the 17th new member of Satcom.

The satellite adopts the Dongfanghong 4 enhanced Satellite Public platform (DFH-4E) independently developed in China, which is equipped with 50 transponders, more than 1000 individual machines, more than 2000 waveguide sub-components, 94 user beams and 11 signalling beams.

The satellite works in geosynchronous orbit (GEO, high earth orbit), uses Ka frequency band, single satellite capacity exceeds 100Gbps, can meet the use of millions of user terminals at the same time, and provides uplink up to 200Mbps, downlink up to 450Mbps communication capacity.

To put it simply, it is a civil and commercial communication satellite with the largest communication capacity, the largest number of beams and the most complex technology in China.

The picture is from Zhongxing 26, which is not the first high-throughput satellite in China. The first one was Zhongxing 16, which was launched on April 12, 2017 (initially called Shiji XIII and later renamed Zhongxing 16). Zhongxing 16 uses Ka band with a total capacity of 20Gbps.

In 2019, we launched Zhongxing 18, but failed.

On July 9, 2020, we successfully launched "Asia-Pacific 6D", which is China's first Ku band high-throughput broadband satellite, with a total communication capacity of 50Gbps and a single beam capacity of more than 1Gbps. Asia-Pacific 6D is a series of Asia-Pacific satellites, Asia-Pacific Satellite is an H-share listed company, and its shareholder is China Aerospace Science and Technology Group. After China Satcom went public in 2019, Asia-Pacific Satellite is its controlling subsidiary.

On November 5, 2022, China also successfully launched Zhongxing 19, using the enhanced Dongfanghong 4 satellite platform to cover C, Ka and other multi-band communications.

Zhongxing 16, Zhongxing 19, and this time Zhongxing 26, are a total of three Ka satellites. The coverage is as follows:

The coverage of the three satellites (photo source: satellite sector) Zhongxing 16 (green range) mainly covers densely populated areas and most of the southeast coastal areas of China.

Zhongxing 19 (blue range) mainly covers Sino-US routes and serves the aviation Internet.

Zhongxing 26 (red range) mainly covers the whole territory of China and its surrounding areas and waters, East Asia, Southeast Asia, parts of South Asia, the Pacific Ocean and parts of the Indian Ocean.

According to the information provided by China Satcom, China Star 16, China Star 19 and China Star 26 will jointly provide high-speed Internet access services for aviation, navigation, emergency, energy, forest and grass industries and universal service users in China and along the "Belt and Road Initiative" route.

Zhongxing 26, which has been put into operation, focuses on serving airborne broadband, shipborne applications, emergency communications and other fields.

█ what is a high-throughput satellite? The so-called "high-throughput" means that the bandwidth capacity of this kind of satellite is several times or even dozens of times more than that of traditional satellites (low-throughput, less than 1-2Gbps).

How does it do that?

First, a higher frequency band is used.

Traditional satellites generally use the C-band of 4-8GHz, which is low in frequency and too crowded. High-throughput communication satellites are widely used in Ku band (12-18GHz) and Ka band (27-40GHz). With rich frequency resources, the bandwidth will follow.

Secondly, the upgrade of satellite platform.

The satellite platform is responsible for carrying satellite load. The size of the platform is getting larger and larger, the load capacity is getting stronger and stronger, and the power supply technology (electric propulsion plus chemical propulsion, hybrid) has been upgraded to ensure the high power consumption required for large bandwidth.

Third, the increase in the number of transponders.

This is also the benefit of upgrading the load capacity of the platform. The number of signal transponders has skyrocketed, which means more lanes and more bandwidth.

Fourth, the upgrade of antenna beam technology.

The improvement of antenna technology, especially the use of spot beam, can also enhance the signal capability. This is equivalent to "focusing" the light, not covering a large area, but concentrating on a small area, which is conducive to the improvement of the speed.

What is the international level of █ Zhongxing 26? The Thailand Thaicom 4 (also known as IPSTAR) communications satellite launched on August 11, 2005 is claimed to be the first high-throughput satellite in the world.

The satellite, developed by Laura of the United States, weighed about 6.50 tons and had a power of 14 kilowatts. It was the largest commercial communications satellite in the world at that time, and was so large that it had to be put into orbit by a French Ariana V rocket.

The total bandwidth of Thaicom 4 satellite is as high as 45Gbps, which can provide users with data services of uplink speed 4Mbps and downlink speed 2Mbps.

At present, the development of high-throughput satellites is divided into three stages. Then, according to the capacity and flexibility, the high-throughput satellite is divided into four generations:

(photo source: satellite circles) the international representatives are Viasat-1 and Viasat-2 of Viasat Company in the United States, and Jupiter-1 and Jupiter-2 of Hughes Network Company.

This year, Viasat-3 will be launched. This satellite is relatively fierce, and the capacity of a single satellite will exceed that of 500Gbps, or even reach the Tbps level.

The service level of Zhongxing 26 is equivalent to that of the second generation high-throughput satellite. China Star 16, China Star 19 and Asia Pacific 6D only belong to the first generation.

It is obvious that there is still a certain gap between us and the most advanced international level. It is reported that China Satcom is actively carrying out the demonstration of the third generation of high-throughput satellites in China, with a satellite capacity exceeding that of 300Gbps.

Can I use Zhongxing 26 to communicate with █ ordinary mobile phones? Of course not.

Zhongxing 26 can support the use of minimum portable terminals, airborne terminals, shipborne terminals and so on. Ordinary mobile phones cannot communicate with them or use their services.

Generally speaking, the airborne / shipborne terminal communicates with it, and then converts the signal into Wi-Fi and so on, which is used by the user.

Special satellite communication terminal in a word, the successful launch of China Star 26 indicates that we have entered a new stage of satellite Internet.

At present, the development of satellite Internet is getting hotter and higher, and there must be a lot of news this year. Satellite communications applications based on ordinary mobile phones, including mobile satellite chips, are likely to make great progress.

Let's wait and see what this thing can bring to our lives and whether it can really enter thousands of families.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: fresh Jujube classroom (ID:xzclasscom), author: Xiaozaojun

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