Chinese researchers have proposed that the world work together on a shared satellite mega constellation to deliver real-time services for everyone on Earth while preventing space from becoming dangerously overcrowded.
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Instead of separate projects by companies and governments to build their own constellations, the plan envisions a common infrastructure network of about 48,000 multifunctional, AI-driven satellites, coordinated through a shared orbital cloud system.
According to the team from China’s National University of Defence Technology, this would be sufficient to provide customised internet, communications, navigation and other services for the world’s eight billion people – at a fraction of the satellite numbers currently proposed.
Their study appeared in the latest issue of National Science Review.
The project is led by Yang Jun, a professor of space instrumentation who has long worked on China’s satellite navigation systems. He said the proposed “open and shared sustainable mega constellation”, or OSSMC, could “kill two birds with one stone”.
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It would not only ease the sustainability challenge of crowded low Earth orbits, but also promote equitable access to space resources, he said. “It provides a valuable China solution for building a community with a shared future for mankind in space systems.”
Ma Xiaotian, a PhD student and team member, said more than a million satellites had already been filed for launch worldwide, led by projects such as SpaceX’s Starlink, which aims for as many as 42,000.