With a flexible solar wing that folds like a ＂memorial＂, what does this satellite look like？

At 10:50 Beijing time today (July 23), our country used the Long March 2D carrier rocket at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center to successfully launch four satellites, Sixiang 01-03 and Galaxy Aerospace Lingxi 03. The satellites were successfully sent into the predetermined orbit and the launch mission was a complete success. Sixiang 01-03 is mainly used to obtain remote sensing observation data and provide commercial remote sensing services; Galaxy Aerospace Lingxi 03 is mainly used for satellite communication technology verification. This mission is the 479th flight of the Long March series of carrier rockets.

The Lingxi 03 satellite launched this time is a low-orbit communications satellite, which has innovatively applied many new technologies and will provide technical support for the rapid deployment of our country’s giant low-orbit communication constellation in the future.

Pathfinder of our country’s giant low-orbit communications constellation

CCTV reporter, Li Ning: This is Lingxi 03. From the appearance, it is completely different from the shape of our traditional satellite. It is a flat plate, which is equivalent to the "convex" shape of our Chinese characters. In addition, all its payloads are exposed, and this satellite is the first satellite in our country to carry a flexible solar wing.

It is understood that the Lingxi 03 satellite is equipped with an advanced millimeter-wave multi-beam digital payload, which is mainly used to verify the relevant technologies for next-generation low-orbit broadband satellite communications.

Galaxy Aerospace Lingxi 03 Star Commander, Hu Zhao: It is a millimeter-wave multi-beam broadband communications satellite with digital processing payload, so it is equivalent to moving the functions of many base stations to the star, it can do a massive analysis of user information, greatly improving the flexibility of communications satellite use, in fact, it is also a good foundation for this constellation of satellite Internet in our country in the future.

Hu Zhao introduced that Lingxi 03 Star will also verify technologies such as super-large energy, industrial integrated molding structure, and multi-star stacking compression release. To this end, the research team has broken through and solved key issues such as active thermal control, providing support for the accelerated construction of satellite Internet in our country.

Flat-panel satellites can be stacked, making full use of the rocket’s carrying capacity

Lingxi 03 has overturned the traditional satellite design ideas and physical forms. It adopts a flat-panel and open configuration, and all single-machine equipment is directly attached to the main structure of the satellite, which can greatly save space and make full use of the carrying capacity of the rocket. This launch will complete the verification of our country’s first in-orbit multi-star stacking launch technology.

Galaxy Aerospace Lingxi 03 Star Commander-in-Chief, Hu Zhao: Traditional low-orbit communications satellites generally have a cube or a trapezoidal structure. When launching, the launch vehicle often needs to provide an adapter, such as a columnar load-bearing cylinder, which takes up a lot of space for the launch vehicle and cannot give full play to its capacity. Then with this flat-panel structure, multiple stars can be stacked to launch, which can make full use of a space in our carrying fairing, which can greatly improve the deployment efficiency of the entire constellation.

Hu Zhao introduced that Lingxi 03 Star draws on the design concept of the overall casting of the automobile chassis, and adopts integrated and highly integrated integrated electronic technology, which is easy to mass-produce satellites, which can shorten the satellite development cycle and improve the networking efficiency of satellite constellations. After completing the relevant technical verification, it will plan to implement multi-satellite launches with one arrow in the future.

Galaxy Aerospace Consonance 03 Star Commander-in-Chief, Hu Zhao: When we launch in the future, because a section of our launch vehicle is a circle, so in order to make use of this circle of space, we will lay two stars symmetrically in a single layer, and then list them layer by layer, which basically fills up the space of the fairing.

Our country’s first satellite with flexible solar wings

Consonance 03 is the first satellite in our country to use flexible solar wings. This flexible wing that can generate electricity is very thin, with a single layer thickness of only about 1 mm. It can be folded like an ancient memorial, and the thickness when pressed is less than 5 cm. When working in space, the length of the solar wing can reach about 9 meters.

CCTV reporter Li Ning: This is the latest flexible solar wing. Compared with the traditional rigid solar wing, you can take a look. It is very obvious that both its size and its weight may be only a few tenths of the rigid solar wing, but its power generation can fully meet the needs of our spacecraft in orbit.

According to reports, this flexible wing has the characteristics of small size, light weight, modularity, etc. It is easy to store, and compared with traditional rigid solar wings, it has a larger area under the same weight, can absorb more solar energy, and is suitable for large-scale stacking and launching of satellites. It is of great significance to accelerate the construction of satellite Internet.

Galaxy Aerospace Lingxi 03 Star Commander, Hu Zhao: After using the flexible solar wing, we can reduce the thickness of a rigid substrate from about 20 millimeters to one millimeter, that is to say, one-twentieth of the basic thickness. In this case, we try our best to use the space of our entire launch vehicle to improve its utilization efficiency.