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On July 16, 2018, the Farnborough Airshow was held in England. China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation (CASIC) made its debut of the entire enterprise in the Farnborough Airshow. CASIC released its key commercial spaceflight projects, Kuaizhou series launch vehicles, space information application, full industry chain service of commercial spaceflight, etc., systematically demonstrating the development blueprint, advantages and system solutions of CASIC in the commercial spaceflight field and fully displaying core projects, products and services of CASIC in launch vehicles, satellite manufacturing, space information network, space information application, etc. and conveying the future-oriented development idea of commercial spaceflight industry cluster.
Systematical Demonstration of Development Blueprint for Commercial Spaceflight
In the Farnborough Airshow, CASIC demonstrated its development blueprint for commercial spaceflight for the first time. Feiyun Project aims to build the reinforced space information local area network and relies on the long-endurance unmanned aircraft platform, and the project will focus on applications such as emergency communication, remote sensing monitoring, etc.. Kuaiyun Project aims to forge a low-orbit narrow-band satellite communication system that will provide comprehensive IoT data service such as data acquisition, realtime data transmission, deep data mining, etc. to build an information ecosystem that features organic integration of human and things, things and things. Hongyun Project focuses on building an airborne broadband Internet that covers the globe to provide broadband Internet service to users at any place and at any time. Tengyun Project aims to research and develop a new-generation space aircraft that is capable of horizontal take-off and can be repeatedly used to provide cheap, safe and convenient trip between the earth and the space. Feiche Project aims to research and develop high speed flying trains that operates on near-vacuum pipe routes to greatly decrease aerodynamic resistance and uses the electromagnetic propulsion technology to provide powerful acceleration capability and high speed cruising capability.
In recent years, CASIC followed the tendency of the development of space flight industry, took commercial space flight as strategies and researched deeply and carefully in launch vehicles, satellite manufacturing, space information network, space information application, etc. A lot of achievements have been made. Since 2016, CASIC partnered with Wuhan City in Hubei Province to build the first national commercial space flight base - Wuhan National Space Industry Base to focus on forging four leading industries, namely the launch vehicles and launching service for space flight, satellite platform and load, space information application service and ground equipment manufacturing for space flight. In February 2016, CASIC established CASIC Rocket Technology Co., Ltd., which is the first specialized rocket company that researches, develops and applies rockets in the commercial mode in China. In December 2017, CASIC Rocket Technology Co., Ltd. successfully completed the first round of fundraising and raised RMB 1.2 billion. The fact that, at the beginning of 2017, Kuaizhou-1A launch vehicle, which was researched and developed by CASIC, successfully launched three satellites with one launch vehicle for the first time and KT-1 launch vehicle successfully launched Tiankun-1 satellite that accurately enterd the intended trajectory marks that CASIC is capable of researching and developing all kinds of typical space aircraft and platforms independently and has laid the foundation for building the Space-based Internet in Hongyun Project. At the end of 2017, CASIC Space Engineering Development Co., Ltd. was registered and established. The company is building a satellite industrial park in Wuhan National Space Industry Base. The establishment of the satellite industrial park will vigorously support the mass production of constellation satellites of Hongyun Project.
“Kuaizhou” brand has become a new name card for commercial launching
In the development of commercial aerospace, the propulsion enjoys priority. The capabilities of launch vehicle determine the level and scale of space application. CASIC is making great efforts to promote the development of launch vehicle technology, and has developed the “Kuaizhou” series of solid launch vehicles for commercial space launching, which can provide commercial space launching services featured by “low cost, high reliability and high orbit injection accuracy” for global customers.
At this exhibition, CASIC demonstrated KZ-1A and KZ-11 solid launch vehicles. KZ-1A is a small solid launch vehicle developed by CASIC, with a maximum diameter of 1.4 m and a carrying capacity of 200 kg / 700 km on a sun-synchronous circular orbit. In addition, CASIC has developed KZ-11 solid launch vehicle in a new way, which has a 5-fold increase in the carrying capacity compared to KZ-1A and can meet the demands for commercialization, high density and rapid launch of satellites.
It is known that the first commercial launch of KZ-1A in early 2017 was a complete success, and thus it is highly favored by the commercial launching market. At present, the amount of commercial orders held by CASIC is nearly RMB 400 million. In the global commercial launch field, the launching price of KZ-1A is also more competitive.
In addition to the major commercial aerospace engineering products, CASIC demonstrated the micro-satellite platforms, core products for spatial information application, services in the whole industry chain and other products at this exhibition.
For the micro-satellite platforms, CASIC demonstrated S-series small satellite platforms. This platform is of high agility, high mobility and high load ratio, and has universal load interface which can carry various loads such as communication and remote sensing for earth observation, emergency relief, data collection, space environment detection and other tasks. This platform has two optional specifications (50 kg and 200 kg) to meet various load demands.
S-200 satellite platform is of modular design to meet various load demands. It is small in size and light in weight, and has certain orbital transfer capability to widely meet the requirements for remote sensing, communication, space exploration and other tasks. Tiankun-1 successfully launched in 2017 is the first satellite developed based on this platform. To this day, its in-orbit operation is stable and reliable.
S-50 satellite platform demonstrated at the same time is a low-cost and high-performance universal micro/nano-satellite platform developed for commercial aerospace. The cost of this platform is significantly reduced by optimizing the development process, selecting the low-level devices and adopting the innovative design idea. The platform’s functions such as satellite house keeping, attitude & orbit control, power distribution and thermal control are scheduled and managed together by an integrated electronic computer to realize high-density function integration. The platform is equipped with liquid propulsion system, and has various navigation and control modes for rapid attitude maneuver and orbit adjustment to meet the demands for various tasks such as data collection, optical remote sensing, scientific exploration and on-orbit servicing.
For the field of spatial information application, CASIC focused on demonstrating the remote sensing image data processing platform, Beidou/GPS chip and satellite communication device. The remote sensing image data processing platform is a networked distributed processing platform for the mapping and remote sensing data to realize the whole-process automatic processing of aerospace images. With the capability of processing the satellite data, aerophotographic data and UAV data for domestic and foreign users, it is widely applied in various industries such as land, forestry, environmental protection, water conservancy, agriculture, disaster reduction, meteorology, ocean, statistics, petroleum and urban gardening. The technology has been applied to major programs such as construction of global geographical name bank and spatial knowledge service, to provide resources investigation, environmental protection and other services for the countries along the “One Belt One Road”.
The Navigation Core Chip products of CASIC support Beidou and GPS dual system joint positioning and single system independent positioning. It has the advantages of low power consumption, high sensitivity, high positioning accuracy, and high timing accuracy and has been widely used in many fields such as intelligent transportation, smart city, intelligent terminal, precision agriculture, logistics tracking, etc.
At the same time, CASIC has the ability to build satellite communication equipment such as satellite communication terminals and ground stations. The related products can realize real-time bidirectional transmission of voice, video, files, etc. via satellite and were widely used in emergency communications command, telecom operators, news radio and television, oil exploration, scientific expeditions and other fields. These products successfully guaranteed large-scale events such as the Olympic Games and the Asian Games, and applied it to the construction of the highest altitude satellite communication base station in the world.
CASIC can provide full industrial chain services including commercial launch, satellite manufacturing and ground station construction and achieve on-orbit delivery.
CASIC relies on the independently developed KZ-1A and KZ-11 rockets to provide commercial launch services, including launching services. Satellite AIT center construction services are available, mainly for environmental simulation experiments of satellites and their components, satellite assembly and testing, satellite flight simulation and calibration, mechanical testing of solar panels or other mechanical devices, and complexity circuit testing. At the same time, ground station construction services can be provided, and has functions such as mission planning and control, satellite on-orbit monitoring and control.
Facing the future, CASIC will take the new generation space launching and application as the core, focus on the development of leading industries such as launch vehicles and launching services, satellite platform and load, space information application, aerospace ground equipment and manufacturing through scientific and technological innovation, commercial mode innovation and management innovation, and drive the development of basic space industries at the same time, such as autonomous and controllable information technology, intelligent manufacturing, new materials, and new energy, eradiating the extended industries including big data, smart industry and intelligent equipment, to make an all-out effort to build commercial space industry clustering with complete system and prominence being given to the key points.
Wei Yiyin, a vice President of CASIC said that CASIC will participate in the overall image of the company. First, the Farnborough Air Show as an aerospace event could be a good chance to show the blueprint and latest achievements of CASIC in the commercial aerospace field; Second, it could promote international users to share the rapid development of China's aerospace technology more conveniently; Third, CASIC is looking forward to international cooperation with elites from industries to strengthen the peaceful use of space resources CASIC will adhere to the principle of openness, tolerance, mutual benefit and win-win, and seek a broader and deeper international cooperation with its counterparts in a more active manner. We aim to work together to develop space technology, develop space resources, promote the flourishing development of global commercial space, and promote the vision of peaceful use of space and the benefit of human society. At the same time, Wei Yiyin sent a warm invitation to the international counterparts to participate in the 4th China (International) Commercial Space Summit held in Wuhan on September 26 to 28, eagerly looking forward to the support and participation of foreign partners.
