Chapter 189 - 183 Meridian_1

Over 100 kilometers away at sea, an electronic reconnaissance ship belonging to the Fifth Fleet detected the rocket’s launch trajectory and noticed a sudden increase in satellite communication frequencies in the region.

It was just not feasible to build many tracking and control facilities merely for Abe’s launch site, but fortunately, it was the Space Age, and satellite monitoring was just as accurate. Moreover, the Yuanwang 3 radar ship had also ventured beyond national borders to the Persian Gulf, where its large antenna radiated guidance, ensuring the flawless trajectory of New Yuan-2.

"...This is Abe National Television. At 12:37 this morning, the Abe Kingdom successfully launched the final module of the ’Hila’ space station into orbit using the Ahal Jiejing heavy rocket, owned by the Abe Space Agency, from the Mukala launch site. The docking is expected to be completed rapidly within two hours, and the construction of the ’Hila Space Station’ will be thoroughly completed before the arrival of the ceremonial gifts..."

As the success of the launch was broadcast over radio and television, the crowd of pilgrims in the Holy City Mecca burst into cheers—the local clergy had never felt such fervor!

At the Mukala Aerospace Launch Site, dignitaries from four nations and engineers from Xinyuan Company shook hands and took photos with nostalgia. Even the gravely ill Aleth was standing much straighter at this moment, embracing Xinyuan engineer Chen Xuan with a spirited glow.

"Thank you. We appreciate the friendship from our friends in the East. The Almighty says you have friendship, and we have felt this friendship," Aleth expressed gratefully.

Hamand, the Crown Prince, was by his side, taking Chen Xuan’s hand:

"The Hila Space Station will be open to our friends. I am looking forward to the day when I can enter space with Lin, to spread the Almighty’s gospel to the world. Abe hopes to purchase another television broadcast satellite from Xinyuan, and to introduce the Meridian navigation to the interior of the Abe Kingdom."

Chen Xuan replied, "Thank you, Your Highness Hamand. I will convey your message accurately."

"Look, the Jiejing is returning!"

An exclamation diverted everyone’s attention; it was the first stage of New Yuan-2 reappearing in their view, about to complete its landing procedure.

Above the launch tower in the vast desert, the Ahal Jiejing rocket, close to the hearts of the people of Abe, re-appeared in front of them. Many who witnessed this scene for the first time couldn’t help but marvel at such a miracle.

The tail flame of the M220 in the middle looked much like the tail of a steed, sweeping a fiery red trajectory through the air.

Most of the script that had been carefully painted on was burnt away by the atmosphere, but some specially reinforced sentences remained.

Ready clergy used the launch tower’s public address system to announce that this was a divine message from the Almighty. He was very pleased with this space berth and generously permitted the people of Abe to ascend and serve it.

Then, Chen Xuan saw that the height of the spectator area at the launch site visibly lowered, with most Abe local residents prostrating on the ground, reverently listening to the Almighty’s commands.

Although the phrases were worn clichés from the Koran, they took on new meanings here, roughly translating to the Almighty being very satisfied, that they’ve done an exceptional job, that the old King Aleth is sure to enter heaven, and Hamand, the Crown Prince, is the rightful heir to ascend to the throne, and so on.

It was just a few passages, yet the clergy managed to interpret them for half an hour before concluding reluctantly, leaving the engineers from Xinyuan and the reporters speechless.

...

"Navigate the heavens and earth, aerospace quality, use Meridian Navigation for travel!"

"Meridian Navigation, pinpoint accuracy!"

Suddenly, such advertising slogans were popping up on roads between cities and towns, signaling that a map software company named "Meridian Navigation" was attempting to break into the market.

Whether it was high-end television commercials or painted slogans on the walls of houses along national highways, Meridian Navigation’s promotions were everywhere.

Meridian Navigation, as the name suggests, is a civilian navigation software primarily developed relying on the Meridian intelligent satellite network, providing navigation and satellite communication services for cars, ships, and airplanes through different terminals.

Unlike the slow Beidou navigation system, the Meridian intelligent network relied on its high-performance ternary chip to form a fast network, with 70 satellites already covering most of the globe and offering full coverage services in Asia.

Such a network seemed too wasteful merely for Xin’an Company’s use, so Lin Ju started a new venture called "Meridian Information Technology and Satellite Communication Company," specializing in navigation and satellite communication business.

Meridian Information Communication was not a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xinyuan. Instead, it was a joint venture among Xinyuan, the Chinese Satellite Navigation Management Office, and the Science and Technology Commission, with the latter two not interfering in commercial operations and holding a 19% stake.

Meridian Information Communication was not born merely for profit-making; its principal aim was to collect data to establish a transportation database for the development of more advanced self-driving artificial intelligence.

Meridian Navigation, connecting both the Meridian intelligent network and the Beidou satellite navigation, and cooperating with national traffic departments, meant to create the most user-friendly navigation software in the country right from the start.

Beyond the functions of a standard map software, Meridian Navigation can also interconnect any vehicle using either the Beidou or the Meridian intelligent network, offering alert features.

For instance, while driving through winding mountain roads, if an approaching vehicle also uses Meridian Navigation, both drivers will receive alerts detailing the other’s speed and position on the map, reducing the risk of accidents.

Moreover, by coordinating with local traffic departments, it can access road control and traffic light status to plan the best possible routes for drivers, minimizing waits at red lights and even avoiding them altogether.

However, this can be somewhat challenging, as the current national traffic management is not as efficient and unified as in later times; for now, it can only be implemented in well-developed large cities.

Of course, aside from these, Meridian Navigation has a very special feature: the conversational artificial intelligence "Meridian."

Xinyuan’s engineers took advantage of the still relatively open online environment to scrape massive amounts of data from major forums and social media platforms, feeding it to the evolved artificial intelligence core extracted from SC09, thereby nurturing a conversational AI similar to future ChatGPT.

Although the XW151/161 series intelligent systems already boasted an artificial intelligence named Xiaoxin, it was highly specialised and depended on the built-in X321 series chip, making it costly to use.

"Meridian," on the other hand, was different. A dialog model, it simply required an internet connection to Xinyuan’s servers to be used, with no local computing power needed.

To conserve computational resources, "Meridian" operated on cloud servers rented by Xinyuan and was only available to users of Meridian Navigation with limited conversations per user per day, but generally enough for use.

The design intent for "Meridian" was twofold: to serve as the voice control part of the navigation software, and to accompany drivers in conversation during trips, though it was still quite basic.

Although "Meridian," with its big data model, and SC09, which performed real-time road calculations, shared the same origin, they were already on completely different paths, with future self-driving applications leaning more towards the likes of SC09.

Meridian was merely an experiment, but it still brought a novel experience to people—artificial intelligence, wow!