Chinese satellite company tests data transfer to ground station mounted on vehicle

Name: Elon Musk says Starship rocket could be ready for uncrewed mission to Mars within 4 years
Uploaded: 2023-10-17T01:00:18.000Z
Duration: 1 min 35 s
Description: Elon Musk says Starship rocket could be ready for uncrewed mission to Mars within 4 years

CGST sends remote sensing images from Jilin-1 satellite in orbit to optical telescope at 10Gbps

WeChat post does not reveal configuration of ground station, including the telescope’s aperture or pointing accuracy, or what kind of vehicle was used

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

The world’s largest imaging satellite constellation Jilin-1, operated by Chang Guang Satellite Technology, has tested a transportable ground station in a space-to-ground ultra-high-speed laser communications trial. Photo: CGST

Ling Xinin Ohio

Published: 9:00am, 17 Oct 2023Updated: 4:46pm, 1 Jan 2025

Jilin-based Chang Guang Satellite Technology has tested a transportable ground station in its latest space-to-ground ultra-high-speed laser communications trial in what it deems an important step towards the technology’s commercial application.

CGST, which operates the world’s largest imaging satellite constellation Jilin-1, sent remote sensing images from one of its 108 Jilin-1 satellites in orbit to an optical telescope mounted on a vehicle at the speed of 10 gigabits per second, the company’s official WeChat account said on Wednesday.

The transportable station is compact, has a high bandwidth and can be deployed anywhere to avoid clouds, atmospheric turbulence or extreme weather, according to the company. It said the station could better support satellite-to-ground laser communications.

01:35

Elon Musk says Starship rocket could be ready for uncrewed mission to Mars within 4 years

“The data rate in this test reached 10 gigabytes per second, which is more than 10 times higher than that of the radio-frequency links traditionally used for satellite communication,” said Wang Xingxing, technical director of CGST’s laser communications ground station unit.

“In the future, Chang Guang Satellite plans to expand the bandwidth to 40-100Gbps, and use such ground stations at various locations across the country to substantially boost its image-acquisition efficiency,” he said.

However, the company did not give any details about the configuration of the ground station, including the telescope’s aperture or pointing accuracy, or what kind of vehicle was used to transport the station.

In June, CGST conducted a similar test in collaboration with the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). It was the first of its kind for commercial application in China, according to the company.