Now in low Earth Orbit (LEO) is the world's first 6G communications satellite lofted by China.
This history-making satellite developed by the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) was the payload on a Long March-6 carrier rocket along with 12 other satellites launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province Friday.
The 6G satellite is the first technical test of terahertz communication's application in space. It carries a terahertz communication load that will establish a transceiver link on the satellite platform and carry out terahertz load tests.
It's been described as a breakthrough in the exploration of terahertz space communication technologies in China's space field, said Xu Yangsheng, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
The satellite weighing 70 kg will be used for a variety of tasks such as disaster prevention and mitigation, land planning, environmental protection, and smart city construction. It was jointly developed by Chengdu Guoxing Aerospace Technology, UESTC, and Beijing MinoSpace Technology.
Sixth generation or 6G technology is expected to be over 100 times faster than 5G. It will enable a lossless transmission in space to achieve long-distance communications with smaller power output.
The advanced technology, which is touted as a possible future replacement for 5G, allows terahertz to be widely used in satellite internet, according to Lu Chuan, head of the UESTC's Institute of Satellite Industry Technology.
The satellite carries an optical remote sensing load system fulfilling a variety of functions. The remote sensing system will monitor crop disasters, help prevent forest fires, check forestry resources, and monitor water conservancy and mountain floods, among many other functions.
Sixth generation technology will be significantly faster and can reach speeds of some 95 Gb/s compared to 5G. It will likely become commercially available in the 2030s.
Right now, however, 6G remains in its infancy. It must still overcome technical hurdles in basic research, hardware design, and its environmental impact before the technology becomes commercially available.
"The sharing, analysis and management of research data are crucial for scientific and technological innovation in today's big data era," said Wang Ruidan, deputy director of the National Science and Technology Infrastructure Center.
The global telecoms industry is still years away from agreeing on 6G's specifications. Telecom industry analysts said it isn't certain 6G will make it into the final standard and replace 5G in mobile communications.
