China’s own GPS System BeiDou has been completed
According to the People’s Daily, a Chinese news publication, as of June 23, 2020, the final BeiDou GPS satellite was launched into space.
Chinas GPS System BeiDou.
China has recently completed BeiDou, it’s very own constellation of GPS satellites which rivals many others which have been in existence for decades.
BeiDou is what the Chinese call ‘The Big Dipper’, a famous asterism of stars.
Existing GPS Systems
For decades the US has long been the pioneers in GPS technologies with their NAVSTAR system, a constellation of 24 sallites which has been operating since the 70s for military use, and more recently for the general public.
Even today, NAVSTAR is the backbone for a vast majority of devices around the world, both consumer & military.
The Importance of GPS
Once GPS technology was only used by the military for the purposes of defence, but it has since been realized as essential for the modern economy; and those who control their own GPS network are imbued with immense power.
Many countries worldwide have created their own satellite systems to break their reliance on the US NAVSTAR system, which has provided the ability for independence.
Rivalling GPS Systems
The other GPS systems are known as GLONASS, GNSS, NavIC, QZSS, Galileo and most recently, BeiDou. These have been released by Russia, the UK, India, Japan, the EU and China respectively.
Reliance on US NAVSTAR
Although some of these GPS systems are completely independent and separate to US NAVSTAR, other systems have only a few satellites, acting as a supplement to increase accuracy and increase coverage.
The Big Dipper Beidou — China’s Investment
China has made a mammoth $12b US dollar investment into its new GPS system, a completely independent satellite system which has taken close to 20 years to complete.
The lengthy project timeframe has given the Chinese phone manufacturers many years to incorporate BeiDou into their technology, with currently around 70% of all mobile phones developed by Chinese companies having the ability to receive, process and send BeiDou GPS signals from their satellites.
The Chinese GPS Plan
With the completion of BeiDou, China can continue towards their goal of becoming self-sufficient. It brings with it flexibility and strength, especially to Chinese handset manufacturers which will adapt to this new technology in in their devices.
In the future, we will likely see China planning for a fully functioning space station that will remaing permanently in orbit, as well as a human run to the moon.
It is believe that the first attempt with be an orbiter, followed by a rover to Mars. It’s speculated that this will happen around August 2020 and if successful, it would be the second nation to land successfully on Earth’s closest neighbour.
Conclusion
With the completion of BeiDou, China has a viable alternative to GPS systems developed by rivalling countries
GPS is an important navigational system which is used by the consumer market, as well as with the military. Having their own system is a significant step forward, especially now with relations between China and the US deteriorating as each year passes.
