BeiDou Navigation Satellite System

Recently, China has recently completed its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System

BeiDou Navigation Satellite System

• The name BeiDou comes from the Chinese word for the Big Dipper or Plough constellation.
• China’s BeiDou navigation project was launched in the early 1990s thereafter it became operational within China in 2000 and in the Asia-Pacific region in 2012.
• It is the fourth global satellite navigation system in the world.
• It aims to integrate its application in different sectors, including fishery, agriculture, special care, mass-market applications, forestry, and public security.
• It can provide positional accuracies of under ten metres (GPS provides positioning accuracies of under 2.2 metres).

The navigation system was completed in three phases

1. BDS-1 which provided services to China
2. BDS- 2 to provide services to the Asia-Pacific region
3. BDS-3 which provides services worldwide.

Significance

• BDS-3 is also capable of providing precise point positioning services (PPP) with a decimeter-level dynamic accuracy and centimetre-level static accuracy.
• It will work with other members of the network, allowing global users to access high-accuracy navigation, positioning and timing, as well as communication services.
• Having an independent navigation system will boost China’s military strength, especially amidst rising US-China tensions.
• BeiDou also has potential for increasing export of goods and services and enhance China’s foreign trade under China’s Belt and Road initiative.
• This has also given China a competitive edge over India, whose IRNSS-NavIC is still a regional navigation system.

Other Satellite Navigation Systems of the world

• The GPS navigation system of US government and operated by the US Air Force.
• Russia has its navigation system called GLONASS.
• The European Union (EU) has Galileo Navigation Satellite System.
• India has Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC).

GPS navigation system

• It has been initiated in 1978 and achieved global coverage in 1995.
• It is owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Air Force.
• It consists of 24 to 32 medium Earth orbit satellites in six different orbital planes.
• GPS typically provides positioning accuracies of under 2.2 meters, which can be improved to as low as a few centimetres with the use of augmentation systems.

GLONASS navigation system

• Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) is operated by ROSCOSMOS, a state corporation responsible for the space flight and cosmonautics program for the Russian Federation.
• It has been initiated in 1982 and achieved global coverage in 1996, and again in 2011 (after the system had fallen into disrepair).
• GLONASS provides positioning accuracies of 2.8 meters.

GALILEO navigation system

• The European Space Agency’s Galileo system initiated in 2005 and projected to provide global coverage by 2020 with 30 satellites.
• Galileo is expected to be compatible with the modernized GPS system.
• The receivers will be able to combine the signals from both Galileo and GPS satellites to greatly increase the accuracy.

NavIC navigation system

• The NAVIC or NAVigation with Indian Constellation is an autonomous regional satellite navigation system developed by ISRO.
• It consists of a constellation of 7 navigational satellites in which 3 of the satellites will be placed in the Geostationary orbit (GEO) and the remaining 4 in the Geosynchronous orbit (GSO).
• It is intended to provide an all-weather absolute position accuracy of better than 6 meters throughout India and within a region extending approximately 1,500 km around it.

UPSC