In recent years, China has strengthened AI technology innovation and actively promoted the "AI+" action. The scale of the core industry of the intelligent economy has exceeded one trillion yuan. "Made in China" has become another bright card of Chinese path to modernization. Starting today, this edition will launch a series of reports focusing on the practice of empowering thousands of industries with artificial intelligence (AI).
——Editor's note:
Using human natural language to issue commands to intelligent agents on the ground, calling large models on space-based satellites for inference, transmitting commands through the satellite ground link, and controlling embodied intelligent robots on the ground to perform actions... This year, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and Shanghai Jiao Tong University completed the verification of controlling ground robots through space computing power.
Space computing power, the disruptive idea of moving data centers into space, is moving from science fiction to reality. Why develop space computing power? What technological breakthroughs are needed to move data centers into space? What is the path and plan for developing space computing power in China? What stage is it currently in? The reporter interviewed relevant industry chain enterprises and experts.
Developing space computing power, a strategic choice driven by the triple drive
"90% of remote sensing satellites are idling in the sky." Lu Jianhua, an academician of the CAS Member and professor of Tsinghua University, believes that this is the pain point of the traditional "days and earth" model. For a long time, satellite data has followed a ground processing mode of "first capturing, then transmitting, and then processing", and a complete remote sensing data acquisition often takes several hours. In scenarios such as forest fire prevention, flood disasters, and ocean rights protection, timeliness is the lifeline.
So, why can't we calculate based on the number of days, or even the number of days? All of this cannot be achieved without the construction of space computing power.
Space computing power relies on space technology, deploying computing systems, data storage systems, and high-speed data interconnection facilities in orbit to build a space information infrastructure that integrates computing power, storage power, and transportation capacity, "said He Baohong, Chief Engineer of China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. From" day to day computing "to" earth to day computing ", and then to the future" space-based main computing ", space computing power is opening up a new field of computing power development.
The proposal of space computing power stems from a triple urgent need.
The first issue is the increasingly acute contradiction between the explosive demand for computing power and energy bottlenecks. Guo Liang, Chief Engineer of Cloud Computing and Big Data Research Institute of China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, introduced that the demand for computing power in generative artificial intelligence big models is growing exponentially. According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the power consumption of data centers in China has reached 196 billion kilowatt hours by 2025. Ground data centers are facing a triple squeeze of energy scarcity, high heat dissipation costs, and limited land resources. Space computing power can utilize solar energy for uninterrupted power supply, providing a new approach to solving this dilemma.
The second requirement is that the timeliness of data processing is driving change. Traditional satellite data transmission takes several hours, but now through on-board AI processing, key target information can be directly transmitted to the ground in just a few minutes. ”Wang Shangguang, Dean of the School of Computer Science at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, introduced that his team has achieved this breakthrough in the development of celestial constellations. In emergency rescue scenarios, this means a shift from "post disaster rescue" to "pre disaster warning".
The third factor is the non renewability of space orbit and spectrum, which is driving countries to seize strategic high ground. Zhao Ce, Deputy Director of the Information and Communication Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, believes that "space computing power has become a key area of great power technology competition." In this context, developing space computing power is not only an industrial choice, but also an inevitable way to safeguard national digital sovereignty.
From single star verification to ecological construction, the space computing industry is in its golden starting period
From the perspective of technological evolution and industrial scale, the development of space computing power can be divided into three stages, "Guo Liang introduced. The first stage is single satellite computing, which involves carrying AI computing modules with certain computing power on a single satellite to perform preliminary screening, cloud removal, or target recognition on remote sensing images, and transmit effective data back to the ground. The second stage is constellation networking, which relies on inter satellite links to connect multiple satellites into a space LAN. When the computing power of a single satellite is insufficient, the idle computing power of neighboring satellites can be called upon to achieve distributed processing of tasks and dynamic scheduling of inter satellite resources. The third stage is the computing power star network, which deploys dedicated large-scale computing nodes in space to form a space computing power cluster, achieving seamless integration of space and earth computing power, and directly providing powerful computing network services for ground terminals, deep space probes, and even other spacecraft.
The development of space computing power has key technological thresholds that must be crossed at every stage. In the stage of single satellite computing, it is necessary to overcome the challenges of chip radiation resistance, vacuum environment heat dissipation, and meet the strict requirements of satellite volume, weight, power consumption, and cost; In the constellation networking stage, breakthroughs should be made in high-speed inter satellite link technology, and space network protocols and operating systems should be established; In the stage of computing power star network, we need to overcome the difficulties of ultra large mass launch and in orbit assembly and operation.
China's space computing industry has moved from theoretical exploration to substantive in orbit verification and preliminary networking stage.
——Technological validation achieves a breakthrough from "0" to "1". China has achieved multi satellite in orbit testing and successfully launched a number of test satellites carrying edge computing loads, verifying the feasibility of commercial devices in orbit applications. In addition, China has also achieved inter satellite link connectivity, and its self-developed laser inter satellite link technology has completed high-speed transmission verification on multiple satellites.
——Constellation deployment enters intensive launch period. The "Thousand Sail Constellation" and other low orbit broadband constellations have started regular launches, and the new generation of satellites generally reserve space for computing power payloads, achieving preliminary integration of communication, navigation, and remote sensing. Guoxing Aerospace has released the "Star Computing Plan", which plans to launch a network of 2800 computing satellites. Galaxy Aerospace has completed the launch of over 40 satellites into orbit and is currently developing a third-generation satellite platform for space computing power.
——The collaborative ecosystem of the industrial chain has initially formed. The Space Computing Professional Committee and Beijing Institute of Space Intelligent Computing were established, and the Beijing Space Computing Innovation Center was unveiled. The list of key common technologies for space computing power has released the top ten key research projects, jointly unveiled by more than 10 leading enterprises such as Blue Arrow Aerospace, Galaxy Aerospace, ZTE, BOE, covering the entire industry chain of satellite platforms, chips, payloads, networking, software, applications, etc.
——The application scenario has shifted from 'usable' to 'easy to use'. The commercial implementation of space computing power has shown initial results on both the consumer and industry sides. In emergency scenarios such as forest fire prevention and flood disasters, combining remote sensing data with on-board computing power can achieve "minute level" disaster distribution, forming a preliminary commercial closed loop.
Based on the foundation of manufacturing industry and domestic demand market, explore development models
There is a consensus that space computing power should be developed, but how to do it is still being explored, "said Lu Jianhua.
The advantage of our country lies in the full industry chain cooperation of concentrating efforts to accomplish major tasks, which is a Chinese characteristic model of 'national team building bottom+private enterprise supplementation', "Guo Liang said. China is relying on a strong manufacturing foundation and domestic demand market to embark on a multi-functional constellation path of deep integration of" communication, navigation, remote sensing, and computing power ".
The development of space computing power in our country also faces many challenges, "Guo Liang said, firstly in terms of launch capability and cost. This is a key physical bottleneck that restricts the large-scale deployment of space computing power nodes in China. Next is high-performance aerospace grade chips. There is still a generation gap in high-end radiation resistant AI chips and on-board high-performance processors, and some core components are facing the risk of being "stuck". The third is network protocols and ecological architecture. The successful construction of the computing power star network requires a unified space computing power network standard to support it.
China has a complete aerospace hardware manufacturing supply chain, from solar panels, batteries, antennas to satellite platforms, with strong cost control and large-scale production potential. 5G/6G、 The theoretical research on the integrated information network of heaven and earth and the advantages of the ground base station industry provide a solid foundation for the synergy of space computing power and ground computing power.
More importantly, China has a vast range of application scenarios and domestic demand markets. There is a huge demand in the fields of smart cities, environmental monitoring, ocean shipping, emergency rescue, etc., which provides rich "test fields" for space computing power. We need to use application scenarios to drive technological development, "said He Baohong.
Focusing on the development of the space computing industry, Zhao Ce believes that it is necessary to strengthen collaborative linkage, improve policy systems and mechanism guarantees; Strengthen innovation drive, accelerate technological breakthroughs and engineering verification; Strengthen application traction, cultivate application scenarios and service models. (Reporter Wang Zheng)
Responsible Editor: Zhao Rui
