Chapter 53: Dual-Star Positioning Symposium

Yang Can felt a bit dazed all over.

She was still in the library polishing her thesis when two people in green military uniforms found her, then they took a car straight to the train station, and for the first time in her life she slept in a berth, clack-clack as she arrived at the great motherland's capital!

What are we here for?

No one told her! They only instructed her to bring her graduation thesis.

That morning at eight o'clock, she was taken out of a guesthouse by two people, got on the 212 again, and then arrived at…… the Space Institute!

Seeing the sign through the window, her mind was still full of doubts—she had brought her thesis and arrived at the Space Institute? Her thesis wasn't even finalized yet; how could people here know?

When the vehicle stopped, she saw the two people standing at the building entrance, and it seemed she finally understood.

"Senior sister, you've finally come—many veterans of the Space Institute are waiting to hear your report!"

Qin Miao went up to her with a full smile: "Senior sister, your dual-star positioning thesis has attracted great interest from the Space Institute. Once you're up there, don't be nervous—just present your thesis content in full, treating it as your thesis defense. Remember, this is your graduation thesis!"

Zhou Ding took a deep breath: "Exactly, Yang Can, Qin Miao's classmate is right!"

Inside the conference room, a crowd of people filled the space!

Seated in the front row were elderly people with white hair and kind faces, but…… Yang Can kept feeling that some of their faces were very familiar, as if she had seen them in the newspaper?

Wait! I remember now!

Ren Lao, Tu Lao, Huang Lao, Liang Lao…… which one isn't a renowned veteran of the space industry? Thank goodness, Qian Lao didn't come……

Even so, Yang Can felt her legs trembling; just as she stepped onto the stage, suddenly—aiyo……

She fell down!

Qin Miao, helpless, hurried over and helped Yang Can up.

"Senior sister, don't get excited, don't be nervous—come, I'll help you over, first let's pay respects to these elders."

"Everyone, seniors, hello, my name is Not Nervous, I come from……"

Oh no, where am I from? My mind is completely blank!

Qin Miao, helpless.

"Seniors, leaders, all strivers in the space field, this is my senior sister, named Yang Can; her condition today…… is overly nervous. Please let her rest aside for now, I will first read her thesis to everyone, and after I finish we will enter the Q&A session."

This can't be blamed on Yang Can; if I didn't have past-life experience, facing so many big shots I might even wet my pants!

Yang Can was helped to the side, and Qin Miao picked up her manuscript and began to present it.

"The thesis title is, 'On the Scheme for Achieving High-Precision Positioning and Navigation Using Two Geosynchronous Satellites'."

"The abstract……"

"Keywords……"

The senior experts didn't rush to urge her on; instead, they listened carefully on one side while thinking.

How exactly is this dual-star positioning achieved?

"There's a diagram below; to make it easier for everyone to understand, I've drawn this diagram on the blackboard."

Zhou Ding knew that what Qin Miao drew was exactly that original principle diagram, but…… each time he looks at it, he gains a deeper understanding.

The senior space professionals widened their eyes.

This is a design never seen before internationally; this completely new scheme is our East's first creation! Moreover, it comes from the hand of a college student!

After the thesis was fully read, Yang Can's eyes gleamed; this classmate Qin Miao had also polished it quite a bit!

"Everyone, say what you think—how is this project?" Huang Lao spoke.

"Theoretically speaking, this scheme is feasible!" said one of the senior experts present.

"Chen Lao, don't rush to give your opinion." Another senior expert said: "Using just two satellites can achieve the positioning goal; hearing it sounds possible, but that's only a possibility! Without practical verification, we cannot confirm its correctness. If we rashly launch this project, we could suffer huge waste."

Launching satellites into space costs money; spending huge sums to send them up only to find they don't work? Our poor country can't afford such consumption!

"If we need practical verification, how can we verify without launching satellites?"

Thus, the project fell into a chicken-and-egg cycle!

"Seniors, I happen to have an idea." Qin Miao knew Yang Can couldn't be relied on, so he had to take charge himself.

"Speak!" Huang Lao's eyes gleamed.

"We want to verify whether this dual-star positioning is actually feasible, without launching new satellites—just use our two existing synchronous communication satellites during their idle periods to run tests; by conducting calculations at the satellite measurement and control stations in the Vast West, New Frontier, and the Capital, we can verify whether this scheme works."

"That's exactly right!" Huang Lao nodded, looking at the crowd.

"Everyone, the land-based item of our Project 8291 needs fast, precise positioning capability, but our country is poor; dual-star positioning is the simplest scheme that can meet our needs—low investment, quick results. I personally believe this project can be launched, starting with experiments on our synchronous communication satellites."

This…… a college graduate's thesis is actually going to be turned into a real project?

Zhou Ding felt as if he were dreaming.

Ren Lao, Tu Lao, Liang Lao, and others all nodded.

They knew how significant satellite positioning was, but the country was too poor to support such a project; now, with a money-saving scheme, of course they had to give it a try!

"However…… the dual-star positioning scheme still requires sending signals to the satellites, which could expose us!" said one expert present, frowning.

You can't have both fish and bear's paw!

The US and USSR's global satellite positioning system has ground users only receiving, not transmitting, which makes it covert; but our two satellites require ground users to send signals to the satellites and then go through ground station calculations, making them electromagnetic radiation sources on the battlefield!

"Exactly, there is indeed this drawback, but we also have advantages—for example, our ground user terminals can not only determine the solution, but also edit text messages and transmit them back via the navigation satellite, thus functioning as satellite calls!"

In later generations, the Beidou satellite can not only send short messages but also make calls! In the wild, in places with no signal, using the Beidou satellite to communicate with the outside world is indeed our specialty!

"At the same time, this is just a beginning; it's a simple scheme given our current lack of funds. Once our economy develops and our nation grows stronger, we will surely expand the scale, upgrading to regional navigation, even a global navigation system." Qin Miao said: "By then, the drawback of exposing users will naturally disappear."

The expert who had just objected also nodded.

Huang Lao looked at Qin Miao, you said this paper was written by your senior sister, right? I feel like you know this system even better than your senior sister does.