Linking the future of travel, SpaceTimeDaoYu aims to enable global communication without dead zones.

From November 26 to November 30, 2024, the second Chain Expo is held in Beijing.

The Chain Expo is the world's first national-level exhibition with the supply chain as the theme. Among them, the Intelligent Automobile Chain Exhibition Area gathers well-known enterprises such as Geely and Volvo. And in this exhibition area, a special commercial aerospace enterprise has aroused heated discussions.

Geely Booth at the Second Chain Expo

"Why does a commercial aerospace enterprise appear in the Intelligent Automobile Chain Exhibition Area?"

Many people are curious about what cooperation space there is between satellite technology and the automobile chain? What roles can satellite applications play in the intelligent upgrade of the automobile industry chain?

SpaceTimeDaoYu, a commercial aerospace enterprise that just celebrated its sixth birthday, has given its own imaginative answers.

To know the answers, we have to start from the intelligent upgrade trend and the needs of the global market.

A Key Link in the Intelligentization of the Industrial Chain

1.5 billion, this is the global car ownership. Although the number seems huge, in recent years, the global traditional automobile manufacturing industry has faced a growth bottleneck.

As the largest economic pillar in China, many practitioners are looking for the next growth point of the industry.

The intelligent upgrade of the automobile industry is a story that attracts much attention in the industry. From January to May 2024, the penetration rate of intelligent connected passenger cars in China has exceeded 50%, and consumers' demand for intelligent driving technology is growing rapidly. According to McKinsey's research, by 2030, the global intelligent connected vehicle market is expected to reach 1.5 trillion US dollars.

Why can the intelligent and connected vehicles persuade consumers to become the reason for buying a car?

First of all, autonomous driving is one of the most expected functions for many car owners. However, to achieve true autonomous driving, the ability to support real-time exchange of massive data is necessary. The global coverage capability of satellite Internet can solve the communication problem in remote areas where the ground network cannot cover. Through a low-latency and wide-coverage network, vehicle data can be transmitted back to the cloud for processing. 

Satellite Empowering Autonomous Driving and Intelligent Connected Vehicles

Secondly, the future travel scenarios are more diverse, and users' communication needs in remote or harsh environments are gradually increasing.

In October 2024, Hurricane Helene raged in the United States. Trump received many requests for Starlink satellite communication services. It was on the eve of the general election, and the public opinion polls in every state would affect the overall situation.

For this reason, Trump found Musk and hoped to provide Starlink broadband services to the disaster-stricken areas. Musk readily agreed that both car users and local residents could enjoy 30 days of free satellite communication services. Trump specifically mentioned this matter in his victory speech and praised the ability of the satellite communication system.

In places where the ground mobile network and fixed network cannot cover, satellite communication can provide reliable two-way voice or text message communication. When the vehicle is in distress, satellite communication technology can ensure timely rescue and improve the active safety ability of the vehicle.

Of course, the ability of satellite communication is not limited to emergency communication. Users can also enjoy various services such as social entertainment and knowing the real-time location of the vehicle. This makes the car no longer just a means of transportation, but a carrier of diversified life and intelligent services.

It can be seen that in the wave of intelligent upgrade, the upgrade of the automobile chain and the application of low-orbit satellites are complementary. In addition to the automobile market, the smart phone market also faces the same difficulties and opportunities.

Similarly, the development of traditional smart phones has also entered a bottleneck period, and manufacturers urgently need new technologies to give consumers a reason to replace their new phones. The direct-to-satellite technology of mobile phones is an eye-catching answer.

The coverage of the traditional mobile communication network is always limited, but today's humans have the dream of exploring the world infinitely. Behind the dream, more new technologies are also needed to ensure safety. Posting a location on Moments in the wild, making a video call with relatives and friends in the desert, the direct-to-satellite technology of mobile phones has broken the boundaries of exploration and provided users with seamless communication services worldwide to ensure the safety of users.

It is expected that by 2027, the global direct-to-satellite mobile phone market size will reach several billion US dollars. The direct-to-satellite function of mobile phones has also become a standard feature of smart phones, and the new user coverage will exceed 1 billion households per year.

From automobiles to mobile phones, satellite communication is a standard feature of the next-generation intelligent upgrade products. According to industry report data, by 2030, the global satellite communication market is expected to reach 159.6 billion US dollars, with a compound annual growth rate of 9.7% from 2023 to 2030.

Accelerated Constellation Deployment

The intelligent upgrade demand of the automobile chain has driven the strong demand for satellite applications in the automobile industry.

Satellite application is the terminal of the commercial aerospace industry chain. To expand satellite applications, a lot of support from the upstream industries is needed. From rocket launches to satellite manufacturing, a lot of time and energy need to be invested.

In 2001, Musk founded SpaceX. However, it was not until 2015 that Musk began to promote the design work of the Starlink constellation. In the intervening more than ten years, he was researching and test-firing the Falcon series of rockets to lay the foundation for the upstream industry.

Similar to SpaceX, many satellite giants have made early layouts and embarked on the journey of designing and deploying related constellations. Looking at the existing constellation projects around the world, they have all experienced a complete development path from design, deployment to profit, clearly showing the common path of the development of the low-orbit satellite constellation industry.

For example, the OneWeb constellation took 5 years for careful design and another 4 years to deploy 648 satellites, and it began to make a profit since 2022; the Starlink constellation started the design in 2015, launched the deployment of the first-generation 4,700 satellites in 2019, completed the task in 4 years, and is currently actively promoting the second-generation deployment, and it has entered the profit stage at the end of 2023.

It takes approximately 10 to 15 years from the initial design of the project to achieving profitability. The expected profit period is usually achieved within a few years after the full deployment of the first or second generation of satellites.

Referring to industry experience, SpaceTimeDaoYu's Geely Constellation started the design in 2019, and the strategic plan is divided into multiple phases.

In the first phase, it is estimated to take 3 years to deploy 72 satellites to achieve global real-time data communication, lay the foundation for medium and low-speed satellite communication services, and serve more than 200 million users worldwide. According to the cycle from the start of the design to the profit of the global constellation project, through the deployment of the first phase, SpaceTimeDaoYu is expected to achieve profitability around 2027.

SpaceTimeDaoYu Displays the Geely Constellation Model at the Second Chain Expo

SpaceTimeDaoYu CEO Wang Yang is often asked a question. There are optical fibers, base stations, and core networks in the human ground network, and a complete ground network has been established. Even in the Everest Base Camp, there is a network signal. Why launch so many satellites?

Wang Yang's answer is that 94% of the world still has no signal coverage. In the entire world, our understanding of the blue planet is actually far from enough.

"Humans will continue to expand the boundaries of space, such as conquering uninhabited areas and even going out of the earth for interstellar travel. With satellites, no matter in the desert or on the farthest island from the mainland, our mobile phones, cars, and aircraft can all have ubiquitous data connections. Even in the future 8G interstellar immigration era, it may also become a reality to have network signal coverage all the way from the earth to Mars."

At present, SpaceTimeDaoYu is building the Geely Constellation based on the development cycle of China's aerospace industry and the existing industrial landing capabilities, and steadily promoting the constellation application services from medium and low speed to high-speed broadband.

On September 6, 2024, at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, 10 satellites of the third orbit of the Geely Constellation were successfully launched into orbit. So far, with 30 satellites in three orbital planes, the constellation has achieved 90% global coverage in 24 hours and officially started to provide stable and reliable satellite communication services to overseas users. This is the first time that a Chinese commercial aerospace enterprise has provided low-orbit satellite communication services to global users.

A Constellation for Future Travel

With the gradual deployment of the Geely Constellation, the demand for the intelligent upgrade of the industrial chain is being gradually met.

In the fields of intelligent networking and autonomous driving, the low-orbit satellite communication of the Geely Constellation has successfully solved the problem of blind spots in the ground network coverage and provided stable data transmission support for vehicles in remote areas.

When the autonomous driving function is turned on, car owners no longer need to worry about the stability of the system operation in complex environments, and they can fully trust the driving safety and efficiency. For the positioning needs in special environments, SpaceTimeDaoYu independently developed the high-precision positioning (PPP-RTK) technology to provide centimeter-level positioning services for intelligent vehicles.

No matter whether the car owner is driving on an urban viaduct, in a tunnel, or in a remote area, this technology can ensure the stability of the positioning signal and provide all-weather safety guarantee for high-level intelligent driving. This technology has taken the lead in mass production in passenger cars and has become a standard feature of many intelligent car pre-installed models, enhancing users' precise experience in lane-level navigation.

Based on the existing satellites of the Geely Constellation, SpaceTimeDaoYu has completed the research and development and tapeout of the mobile phone direct-to-satellite communication chip. At this stage, the mobile phone direct-to-satellite communication service can be realized by pre-installing the chip on the mobile phone. In the uninhabited desert and the busy city, when users turn on autonomous driving, take out the mobile phone directly connected to the satellite, and enjoy the global communication service, there is an enterprise operating silently behind, writing a story of global travel without dead ends. This story has appeared at the Chain Expo for two consecutive sessions and has also attracted a lot of attention.

Low-orbit constellations, satellite communication chips, and vehicle-grade high-precision positioning modules, SpaceTimeDaoYu has demonstrated many core products and technologies. These technologies not only serve passenger cars and commercial vehicles but also promote the seamless connection between intelligent connected vehicles and the cloud and infrastructure, injecting new momentum into the development of smart cities and intelligent transportation.

Satellite Services Going Global

The theme of the Chain Expo is "Linking the World", and the capabilities of SpaceTimeDaoYu are also going global.

The ground communication capability is often limited by boundaries, but the satellites orbiting in space can easily cover the world.

It can be said that low-orbit satellite constellations are naturally suitable for global services. Therefore, SpaceTimeDaoYu is also accelerating the layout of the global market to provide seamless satellite communication connections for global customers. SpaceTimeDaoYu actively explores the global satellite application market and provides satellite communication services.

In November 2024, SpaceTimeDaoYu appeared at the Cairo Information and Communication Technology Exhibition in Egypt to explore the application and landing of Chinese commercial aerospace technology in African countries; in early June 2024, SpaceTimeDaoYu completed the first overseas commercial deployment test of the Geely Constellation in the Middle East, achieving a communication success rate of 99.15%, with a network availability of over 99.97%; the satellite terminal has an anti-interference ability of 50dB, and it can still stably receive satellite signals even in a harsh electromagnetic environment.

Geely Constellation Satellite

In the future, SpaceTimeDaoYu will provide communication services to areas where the construction of global communication infrastructure is more difficult; and provide remote monitoring, data transmission and emergency communication services for important oil and gas production areas.

The global strategy of Geely Group will also help SpaceTimeDaoYu's overseas layout. Globally, Geely Group sells 3 million units of products annually, of which the overseas market accounts for about 10% of its total sales. In the future, the Geely Constellation will provide satellite communication service support for global users to further enhance the competitiveness and influence in the global market.

From smart phones to smart cars, users need satellite communication technology to realize future travel, and the industry also needs satellite communication technology to realize intelligent upgrade. Seamless communication is also a common global demand.

Participating in the Chain Expo for two consecutive sessions, SpaceTimeDaoYu has let everyone know the determination of the enterprise to go global. As an important participant in future travel, the globalization process of SpaceTimeDaoYu will also help more enterprises with the needs of network connection and communication to achieve seamless global connection.