China to boost satellite services, space technology application

China will continue to boost public services with satellites and promote the application and transfer of space technology in the next five years, according to a white paper on the country's space program.

The white paper, titled "China's Space Program: A 2021 Perspective," was issued Friday by the State Council Information Office.

In the coming five years, China will cultivate and strengthen its space application industry by integrating it with the digital economy, and deepening the integration of communications technology, satellite navigation, and remote-sensing information, Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), made the remarks at a press conference on the white paper.

China will intensify the integration of satellite applications with the development of industries and regions and space information with new-generation information technology such as big data and the Internet of Things, the white paper said.

The country will extend the integrated application of remote-sensing satellite data for land, oceans, and meteorology. China will also advance infrastructure construction for the integrated application of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), satellite communications, and the ground communications network to improve its capacity to tailor and refine professional services.

All these efforts will help achieve the goals of peaking carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality, revitalize rural areas, and realize new-type urbanization, coordinated development between regions, and eco-environmental progress.

The significant role of satellites is evident in resource and eco-environment protection, disaster prevention and mitigation, management of emergencies, weather forecasting, and climate change response. It is also apparent in social management and public services, urbanization, coordinated regional development, and poverty eradication.

The satellite remote-sensing system has been used by almost all departments at national and provincial levels to conduct emergency monitoring of over 100 severe natural disasters countrywide.

The communication and broadcasting satellite network has made direct services available to over 140 million households in China's rural and remote areas.

The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System has guaranteed the safety of more than seven million operating vehicles, provided positioning and short message communication services to over 40,000 seagoing fishing vessels, and offered precise positioning services for the freighting of supplies and tracking of individual movement for COVID-19 control and hospital construction.

"The space applications have been extensively serving all socio-economical fields and helping to improve people's lives," Zhao Jian, director of the Earth Observation System and Data Center of the CNSA, said at the press conference.

They have covered diverse fields such as the land and resource survey, agricultural development, forest and grassland monitoring, disaster prevention and mitigation, weather forecasting, transportation, education, and construction, said Zhao.

In the next five years, China's space industry will seize opportunities from the expanding digital industry and the digital transformation of traditional industries to promote the application and transfer of space technology.

More efforts would expand and extend the scope for applying satellite remote-sensing and satellite communications technologies and realizing the industrialized operation of the BDS.

"This will provide more advanced, cost-effective, high-quality products and convenient services for all industries and sectors and mass consumption," the document noted.

New business models for upscaling the space economy such as travel, biomedicine, debris removal, and experiment services will develop to expand the industry, it said.