Shenzhen Guangqi plans to exploit near space

On Nov 16, Liu Ruopeng, the founder of Shenzhen Guangqi Research Institute, speaking to the China High-Tech Forum, disclosed that Guangqi was exploiting its near space plan and would push forward its “Traveler” strategy in the next year, aimed at sending people into near space.

So far, only some 400 people have travelled to outer space. “Does everyone here have the opportunity to travel to outer space and have a look at the outer world?” Liu Ruopeng began by asking this question at the forum. After that, he introduced some ideas about how to use aircraft to improve and reform the Internet environment on a massive scale. He also described how to use this kind of setup to realize people’s dreams of travelling into near space, including how to develop new service platforms there.

Liu said that Guangqi had created an important base in Shenzhen, called the Apollo Project and it will develop this into a near space project. Near space refers to the airspace which is 20-100 kilometers above the ground. It has drawn extensive attention internationally due to its important development and application value. At present, the height that an aircraft can reach is generally 10 kilometers, and the height of orbiting satellites flying in outer space varies from 2,000 kilometers to over 380 thousand kilometers.

This project includes research and development on electrical energy devices and the intellectual technology of metamaterials, solar power, electrical energy and so on. At present, the flying platform in near space researched and developed by Guangqi can put different sensors into this platform for the collection of big data and integration of services. This platform can also transport people and materials, and can conduct better material delivery under the status of weightlessness in space. The flying platform, which is called the cloud platform, is loaded with many cloud technologies, big data and Internet services. It can conduct better transmissions of spatial data.

While transferring data, it can also convey some fiber optical materials to the earth. “We can use wireless technology to cover data transmission of over 100 kilometers. Meanwhile we can also publish the first cloud product in Shenzhen next month. This will cover Shenzhen, Hong Kong and some near space places and it can surpass primary Wi-Fi or even surpass Wi-Fi altogether.”

In the other project – “Traveler” – the spacecraft can travel five hours going back and forth from the ground to space, in which one hour is spent on the ground, two hours is in space and the other two hours it returns to ground again. Liu Ruopeng disclosed that this technology would mature in the next year. At present, Guangqi had cooperated with Chinese flight companies and some Chinese trained pilots, and they would take more people to inner space at a height of between 20 to 40 kilometers. Guangqi was still working on a related near space travel of up to 200 kilometers. “That is to say, you can go on a honeymoon on the moon.” Liu Ruopeng revealed that, in the next year, they would push out near space travel.