China successfully launches 23rd Beidou GPS satellite | Spaceflight Now

[Martian]

China’s Beidou navigation network grows with successful launch | Spaceflight Now

"The craft launched Tuesday is the Beidou system’s 23rd satellite, and the third new spacecraft to join the fleet this year."

 

[aditya g]

These dual use satellites are an eye wash as China will claim them to be civilian but in reality be used for military reasons putting millions of civilians at risk.

China’s Beidou navigation network grows with successful launch | Spaceflight Now

"The craft launched Tuesday is the Beidou system’s 23rd satellite, and the third new spacecraft to join the fleet this year."

 

[amoy]

Beidou promoted for use in Arab states
By ZHAO LEI | China Daily | Updated: 2017-05-25 07:00

Satellite navigation system could be used for transport, mapping, surveys

China and Arab states will work together to promote the use of China's Beidou Navigation Satellite System in the Arab world, according to a statement following an industry forum on Wednesday.

The two sides have pledged to strengthen their communication and collaboration in satellite navigation and to bring Beidou-based services to Arab states to enhance social and economic development, according to the statement, which was released after the First China-Arab States Beidou System Cooperation Forum in Shanghai.

Cooperative projects based on the requirements and priorities of Arab states will be created, and joint efforts will be made to employ the Beidou system in a variety of sectors in the Arab world, such as transportation, land mapping, surveying, agriculture and public security, the statement said. China will assist Arab states in boosting the development of satellite navigation.

More than 80 representatives from the 21-member League of Arab States and about 120 Chinese officials, researchers and businesspeople took part in the event.

Wang Li, chairman of the China Satellite Navigation Committee, said at the forum that the Beidou system will be able to provide positioning and navigation services to Arab states starting at the end of 2018.

He said China has maintained regular contact since 2014 with Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Algeria, as well as with regional organizations such as the Secretariat of the League of Arab States and the Arab Information and Communication Technologies Organization, to discuss the promotion, personnel training, joint research and development of the Beidou system.

Mohamed Ben Amor, secretary-general of the information organization, said a joint center of excellence for the Beidou system will be opened in November in Tunis, capital of Tunisia, and will serve Arab states through personnel training and technological research.

"We want to take advantage of all of Beidou's applications to benefit Arab states," he said.

Tests in Doha, Qatar, in May last year showed local ground facilities could receive signals from eight Beidou satellites at that time. That means the Beidou system can independently provide positioning, navigation and timing services to local users, with accuracy as good as other space-based navigation systems used there, said Ma Jiaqing, deputy director of the China Satellite Navigation Office.

Beidou is the fourth navigation satellite system in the world, following the United States' GPS, the Russian GLONASS and the European Union's Galileo.

So far, 23 Beidou satellites have been launched to create the space-based positioning and navigation network. The first was launched in 2000 and the most recent in June. The system began providing positioning, navigation, timing and messaging services to civilian users in China and parts of the Asia-Pacific region in December 2012.

The country plans to launch six to eight Beidou satellites into space this year.

According to plans from the China Satellite Navigation Office, the network will be made up of 35 satellites in 2020 to give Beidou global coverage.

 

[Armand2REP]

They must be close to global coverage as they have as many operational as the GLONASS constellation. I can pick up the Russian nav but nothing from China...

 

[J20!]

They must be close to global coverage as they have as many operational as the GLONASS constellation. I can pick up the Russian nav but nothing from China...

Always the hater. What can't you "pick up" exactly?

 

[no smoking]

These dual use satellites are an eye wash as China will claim them to be civilian but in reality be used for military reasons putting millions of civilians at risk.

No, they are not. Just like any other navigation satellite, Beidou doesn't have detection function.

 

[Mikesingh]

I wonder how many countries are making use of the Beidou SNS? Is Pakistan using GPS or Beidou?

 

[Project Dharma]

I was wondering, does the country manning the satellite have the ability to track users if you use their system? What data do they have? Just a random "ping" from some location or can they tie it to my real life identity? (John Smith, XYZ Street, SomeCity, SomeState, USA)

 

[Armand2REP]

I was wondering, does the country manning the satellite have the ability to track users if you use their system? What data do they have? Just a random "ping" from some location or can they tie it to my real life identity? (John Smith, XYZ Street, SomeCity, SomeState, USA)

It is the satellite that does the transmitting, the user has a reciever. Governments track you from the data your phone transmits via tower or wifi that can include your gps coordinates.

 

[airtel]

I was wondering, does the country manning the satellite have the ability to track users if you use their system? What data do they have? Just a random "ping" from some location or can they tie it to my real life identity? (John Smith, XYZ Street, SomeCity, SomeState, USA)

i think American govt. will use (or they are already using ) Artificial intelligence , Facebook , whatsapp , GPS etc to track the activities & thinking of people around the world .

 

[Project Dharma]

i think American govt. will use (or they are already using ) Artificial intelligence , Facebook , whatsapp , GPS etc to track the activities & thinking of people around the world .

Yeah that is what I was thinking.

User logs onto Facebook and makes a post. Facebook is part of Prism and shares the GPS co-ordinates of the person who made the post. Over time, it is pretty easy to tie those GPS co-ordinates to an identifier marking the person. So potentially, they could be tracking any person in the world because anybody uses Facebook or WhatsApp including our intelligence assets. American loyalty is fickle and can wane over time.

Time to ban these American companies in India and come up with desi alternatives as well as a homegrown navigation system like China?

 

[no smoking]

I was wondering, does the country manning the satellite have the ability to track users if you use their system? What data do they have? Just a random "ping" from some location or can they tie it to my real life identity? (John Smith, XYZ Street, SomeCity, SomeState, USA)

Generally speaking, they can't do without the co-operation of the local government. Most of GPS equipment only receive the signal, can't send the signal unless you set up a special device in this equipment, which can be easily found out.
Mobile is the equipment that can send the signal, but it is too weak for satellite to pick up. So you will need the local infrastructure to pick up. And you also need the local database to identify the user. More importantly, you will need the local government's permission for access the data and transmission of signal.