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Beidou to be Functional by the Olympics
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The Chinese administration is determined to make Beijing shine for the Olympics next year, much as Australians did for Sydney in 2000. Apart from all the new buildings and the clean air (open fires won't be allowed) the Chinese will be anxious to impress visitors with their technical mastery. |
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Beidou 5 |
The Naviforum meeting was interesting, if only because it signalled a new willingness by the Chinese side to discuss - not only the current state of their positioning systems-but also their future plans for the network.
It may by symptomatic that although initiated by China's military forces, the China Satellite Navigation Engineering Centre, a civilian organisation, will reportedly take charge of the research, building, and management of the new system.
The Chinese have been building Beidou since 2003, when three satellites were sent into geo stationary orbit. In February and April 2007, another two satellites were sent up.
These satellites give coverage of East Asia. However, reports in China Online suggest currently-available Beidou receivers can give, at best, 100 metre accuracy. Moreover, the cheapest receivers cost US$2600, the report says, so Chinese plans for the Olympics may be a bit optimistic.
Regardless, China plans a new system called Beidou-2, or Compass. It is a global version of Beidou. It seems that Beidou-2 will consist of the five original Beidou geo-stationary satellites, plus 30 satellites in medium orbit.
They will transmit signals on the following carrier frequencies: 1195.14-1219.14 MHz, 1256.52-1280.52 MHz, 1559.05-1563.15 MHz and 1587.69-1591.79 MHz.
Some of these signals overlay the Galileo PRS band and to a lesser extent the GPS M-code.
Officials at the conference were keen to stress that they want Beidou-2 to be compatible with other navigation systems. However, they anticipate rigorous negotiations around frequency conflicts with GPS and Galileo.
It is also clear that the Chinese, who have a E200 million stake in Galileo, believe they can get Beidou-2 operational before the Europeans can achieve the same with Galileo.
