China's space-based computing is moving beyond research and development and entering a critical phase of building out in-orbit computing capabilities.
China now operates more than 640 civil or commercial remote-sensing satellites in orbit, the second most of any nation in the world.
These satellites generate massive amounts of data every day, but less than 5 percent is actually transmitted back to earth because of constraints on the transmission bandwidth from orbiting satellites back to Earth.
Coordinating emergency disaster relief, which is enhanced by satellite monitoring, calls for instantaneous processing of the data gathered in orbit. But traditional satellite transmission links do not currently allow for such a speedy turnaround of data.
Chinese scientists are now working on solutions to this, using AI-powered in-orbit computing which can quickly filter data and select the most important information to send back to analysts on the ground.
"In terms of operational models, China is pioneering the shift from a 'space sensing, ground computing' model' to 'in-orbit data-processing'. Satellites complete AI processing directly in-orbit after capturing data, eliminating the need to downlink the full volume of raw data to the ground and greatly conserving satellite-to-ground transmission bandwidth. On the planning front, the 'Three-Body Computing Constellation project' aims to achieve a thousand-satellite-scale network by 2032," said Xie Lina, deputy director of the Cloud Computing and Big Data Research Institute at the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology (CAICT).
China's space-based computing industry is entering a period of rapid growth. Industry experts say that over the medium-to-long term, space-based computing is expected to evolve in three phases: single-satellite computing, networked constellations, and integrated space-ground collaboration. Researchers are prioritizing developing applications for solving problems that poorly served by ground-based computing power, such as intelligent remote-sensing interpretation, disaster prevention and mitigation, and open-ocean monitoring.
China space-based computing industry ready for take off
