Starlink satellite technology developed by United States Space Exploration Corporation has had a serious impact on traditional Internet communication, traditional Internet communication is achieved by relying on mobile base stations and optical cables, while Starlink satellite communication can save mobile base stations and huge optical cable systems, as long as through small receiving equipment, through low-orbit satellites can achieve Internet communication, simply like the previous satellite TV, through small antennas to achieve communication between satellites. During the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Ukraine army used Starlink technology a lot to achieve communication on the battlefield, and also navigated a variety of weapons, thus showing the outstanding advantages of Starlink technology.
Starlink satellites are to build a huge network in low orbit on a scale of tens of thousands, so as to meet the Internet communication in various regions, traditional Internet communication, if you want to meet global use, you need to set up mobile communication base stations in remote areas, obviously for most countries there is no corresponding infrastructure capacity, so the Starlink technology promoted by United States Space Exploration Corporation can make Internet communication in remote areas possible. When the United States did not build in the field of 5G technology, it opened up a new track through Starlink technology, and also improved the launch vehicle technology of the Space Exploration Corporation, because when launching Starlink satellites on a large scale, the launch vehicle was also improved and iterated, so there was a win-win situation.
SpaceX's low-cost launch vehicle provides the basis for the layout of Starlink satellites, and the current Falcon 9 launch vehicle can be reused multiple times, so the cost of each launch can be controlled at about $60 million, which has obvious advantages over traditional single-use rockets. When United States Space Exploration Corporation promoted the large-scale layout of Starlink satellites, China had already made a move, and on August 6, China sent China's self-developed Qianfan Polar Orbit 01 group of satellites into a predetermined orbit through a Long March 6 carrier rocket, the Qianfan constellation is China's version of the Starlink project, apparently to break the monopoly of United States in the field of low-orbit Internet communications.
Like Starlink of United States Space Exploration Corporation, the Thousand Sails Polar Orbit constellation will have tens of thousands of low-orbit satellites deployed, thus providing low-latency Internet communication services to the world. When the Starlink satellite of United States is promoted on a large scale, China's Qianfan polar-orbit constellation project can be-for-tat, so as to regain the corresponding initiative. Starlink technology is characterized by breaking through Internet sovereignty, and it is obvious that China's Thousand Sails Constellation project can establish a reciprocal deterrence against United States, so it is extremely important in the strategic field. United States is trying to establish an advantage in a different way, and China will not sit idly by and defeat magic through magic, and the Thousand Sails constellation is one of those projects.
In addition to the Thousand Sails constellation, China also has other low-orbit Internet communication satellite projects, low-orbit communication satellites are actually not new, United States has promoted corresponding projects before, but only for telephone communications, due to the limitations of satellite technology at that time, and the launch cost is too high, so that the project can not achieve the goal. With the advancement of science and technology, low-orbit communication has once again become the direction of development, and China has aimed at the highest level.