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(Yicai) Aug. 21 -- China’s homegrown Beidou Satellite Navigation System is set to become more integrated and intelligent, one of its key developers told Yicai.

The next step is to build a more intelligent and comprehensive national positioning, navigation, and timing system to solve “the problems in deep space, inside architecture, and under water,” Lin Baojun, chief designer of the BDS-3, said in a recent interview.

Lin, who is also vice chief director of the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites, has worked on 12 satellites from the completion of the BDS-1 system at the end of 2000 to that of the BDS-3 in July 2020, which provides high-precision positioning and navigation to users in 200 countries.

BDS is integrating new technologies including big data and artificial intelligence to build an ecosystem of emerging industries. Many navigation map suppliers in China have prioritized the BDS positioning system, and it is used over 360 billion times each day on average.

China's satellite navigation and location service industry was worth CNY501 billion (USD68.7 billion) in 2022, up 6.8 percent from the previous year, according to the White Paper on the Development of China's Satellite Navigation and Location Service Industry released earlier this year.

The core output value of the industry including chips, devices, algorithms, software, navigation data, terminal equipment, and infrastructure directly related to the research, development, and application of satnav technology rose 5 percent from a year ago to CNY152.7 billion.

A more ubiquitous, integrated, smart, and comprehensive national positioning, navigation, and timing system is scheduled to be established by 2035, according to China’s plans.

“Now BDS, like other major navigation systems, covers thousands of kilometers above the ground,” Lin said. “However, it is still very difficult to offer seamless coverage from deep space to indoor space to underground space.

“It is particularly difficult to cover the space under water since signals from satellites in space are transmitted to the ground then to terminals through microwave signals that cannot pass through water,” he said, “so other means are needed.”

Editor: Tom Litting