On March 27th, with the cherry in full blossom, three famous universities, Wuhan University, Tsinghua University and Beihang University, leaders in the field of geospatial science, as well as the industry frontrunner, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, began cooperating in significant geospatial technology applications for the National Defense Industry, Beidou Navigation and so on.
The cooperation of the “Four Giants”, led by the Wuhan University, is aimed at accelerating the pace of our national geospatial science development. First of all, they share a series of key technological projects of major importance to science and technology on a national level —“The High-resolution Earth Observing System” and “The Second-generation Satellite Navigation System”. Secondly, they worked together to establish the first Chinese Remote Sensing Integrated Proving Ground and finished the geometric calibration of “Resource III” and “High-resolution I”, making great contributions to improving the positioning accuracy of remote sensing satellites made in China. Thirdly, they signed a contract with the Wuhan Municipal Government under the framework and set up of the Wuhan Institute for Industrial Technology, Navigation and Location Service, Wuhan Institute of Remote Sensing and Industrial Spatial Information, to provide vital technology and talent support for the development of industrial clusters in navigation and location service, as well as in remote sensing and geographical information in Wuhan. In addition, they introduced China’s BeiDou System to the world — they established the first overseas Chinese Ground Enhancement Station in Choncuri, Thailand.
It is a fact that the “Four Giants” have their own special advantages in the field of geospatial science. In order to work together and share the fruits of their collaboration, the “Four Giants” first joint forces in the creation of the Geospatial Information Technology Collaborative Innovation Center in 2012, devoted to China’s great significance programs. With the backup of seven academicians, a team of top scientists challenged the geospatial technology with a remote sensing processing emergency response time decreasing to meter-level. Ground positioning accuracy improved from 50 to 10 meters, satellite navigation and positioning accuracy reached respectively meter-level and centimeter-level, which may have an impact in China in the next five years.
“80% of the human activities are related to the geographic space position.” Li Deren, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering said. He pointed out that China’s industrial scale of geospatial information is worth more than 200 billion Yuan and has increased by 25% in recent years. The market prospect is fairly positive, especially in the main fields of application such as Satellite Navigation Positioning, Remote Sensing Earth Observation, Digital City and Smart City, Map and Positioning Services and so on.
Wu Yansheng, Deputy General Manager of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, alleges that geospatial information has become the core symbol of measuring national defense capabilities, on which both the Battle Command System and Precision-Guided Weapon System are based. It is estimated that by January 31st this year, the satellites all over the world have totaled 1167, 502 of which belong to the United States. A half of China’s satellites are earth observing and remote sensing satellites. By 2020, these numbers will double in all likelihood. “Many new satellites have been launched into the space. Now it is up to us to decide how we are making good use of them,” said Li Deren. In the future, all satellites are likely to form a “Celestial Internet”, making it easier for information to travel and easing communications. Whether we are talking about the shores of the Mediterranean or the Gulf of Aden, the clear images taken by our satellites will be so accurate, in terms of meter by meter, allowing us to observe nearly everything at a glance.
