Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




SPACEWAR
China eyes 'global monitoring network' of surveillance satellites
by Staff Writers
Moscow (Voice of Russia) Apr 03, 2014


Xichang satellite launch centre.

To compensate the frustration over the endless search for missing the Malaysian airliner, Chinese scientists have doubled efforts to promote their project of a huge satellites network, which will enable Beijing to monitor the whole world.

As the mission to find the passenger jet MH370 which disappeared off the radars on March 8 with 239 people on board, 153 of them Chinese, is yet to yield to any substantial result, the space surveillance net project is gaining strong backing from key government officials in Beijing, the South China Morning Post reports.

China currently has satellites in the orbit but they largely focus on its region and surrounding area. The exact number of them is a state secret.

"If we had a global monitoring network today, we wouldn't be searching in the dark. We would have a much greater chance to find the plane and trace it to its final position. The plan is being drafted to expand our regional monitoring capability," Professor Chi Tianhe, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of remote Sensing and Digital Earth, told the SCMP.

After the Malaysian Boeing 777 went missing, the Chinese Academy of Engineering submitted a letter from senior scientists to state leaders advising them to begin building a global satellite-surveillance network.

If the project is given the green light by the Chinese government it could be up and running in as little as two years from now, says Chi. But it won't be cheap, a satellite costs 400 million Yuan ($64 million) to build, this would mean the project as a whole would need a budget of at least 20 billion Yuan.

According to statistics from the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists there are about 1,000 satellites currently orbiting the earth, but the vast majority of those are for communication and only about 150 are for observation, remote sensing and military-surveillance.

Professor Liu Yu, an expert at Peking's University's school of earth and space sciences, believes the project could be game changing for China's ability to spy from space.

"International earth-observation services today are dominated by the US and European countries, but if China launches more than 50 satellites for this purpose, the whole landscape will be changed," said Liu.

But the project is by no means set in stone and it faces a number of technological hurdles. One of them is that the existing space centers in Jiuguan, Taiyuan and Xichang are involved in other missions, like manned space flights and plans to explore the Moon.

At the moment China launches about 15 satellites every year, but this would need to be at least doubled.

Space experts believe that with an upgrade at the Wenchang launch center in Hainan, which is now complete, it might be possible to increase China's rocket capacity and thereby make the project possible.

While the quality of the imaging equipment also needs to be improved, says Liu.

Professor Zhao Chaofang, an oceanographer at the Ocean University of China in Qingdao, also said that China needs to develop more ground stations, to ease and speed up sending data back to earth.

"Many Chinese satellites can only offload their data when they are flying over China, so the data we receive is sometimes only a fraction of the amount collected by the satellites. To build up a global monitoring network as efficient as that of the US, our ground stations overseas must be expanded as well," he said.

Source: Voice of Russia

.


Related Links
China National Space Administration
Military Space News at SpaceWar.com






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle




Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News





SPACEWAR
US's old satellites cannot track Malaysian airplane, as war drones suck funds dry
Moscow (Voice of Russia) Mar 25, 2014
The US's old satellites cannot track the missing Malaysian airplane as money is being spent on war drones instead. As the world grows obsessed with drone imagery, it comes at the expense of ignoring satellite radar technology. In today's day and age, high-resolution image satellites are capable of snapping very detailed photos of small locations. However, an imagery solutions manager for t ... read more


SPACEWAR
Misleading mineral may have resulted in overestimate of water in moon

Land a Lunar Laser Reflector Now!

Scientists date Moon at 4.470 billion years

New research finds 'geologic clock' that helps determine moon's age

SPACEWAR
Health risks of Mars mission would exceed NASA limits

Mars and Earth move closer together this month

The Opposition of Mars

Mars yard ready for Red Planet rover

SPACEWAR
NASA Commercial Crew Partners Complete Space System Milestones

Using ethic frameworks for decisions about health standards on long duration spaceflights

NASA suspends Russia ties, except on space station

China, Asia-Pacific, will power world tourism: survey

SPACEWAR
China launches experimental satellite

Tiangong's New Mission

"Space Odyssey": China's aspiration in future space exploration

China to launch first "space shuttle bus" this year

SPACEWAR
Soyuz Docking Delayed Till Thursday as Station Crew Adjusts Schedule

US, Russian astronauts take new trajectory to dock the ISS

Software glitch most probable cause of Soyuz TMA-12 taking two day approach

Russian spacecraft brings three-man crew to ISS after two-day delay

SPACEWAR
Soyuz ready for Sentinel-1A satellite launch

Boeing wins contract to design DARPA Airborne Satellite Launch

EUTELSAT 3B Mission Status Update

Arianespace's seventh Soyuz mission from French Guiana is readied for liftoff next week

SPACEWAR
Lick's Automated Planet Finder: First robotic telescope for planet hunters

Space Sunflower May Help Snap Pictures of Planets

NRL Researchers Detect Water Around a Hot Jupiter

UK joins the planet hunt with Europe's PLATO mission

SPACEWAR
The Space Debris Radar Developed By Indra Passes ESA Tests

Chile quake pushes copper price to three-week high

Space Observation Optics Cover from IR to X-ray Wavelengths

Intel bets big on cloud, with stake in Cloudera




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.