Space-borne BDS receiver for LING QIAO satellite: design, implementation and preliminary in-orbit experiment results

Abstract

Known as China’s first low earth orbit (LEO) mobile communication experimental satellite, the LING QIAO satellite was launched on September 4, 2014. In addition to the two global positioning system (GPS) receivers on board, which are the main navigation receivers supporting the synchronized LEO communication payload and other systems that require navigation input, a BeiDou navigation system (BDS) receiver is also installed on board as an experimental payload. We present the system design and preliminary in-orbit experiment results of the BDS receiver of the LING QIAO satellite. The results show that: (1) The root-mean-square positioning error of the BDS receiver is 13 m, while the GPS error is 1 m; (2) the in-orbit traced service area of BDS is from 55°S to 55°N, 70°E to 150°E, which matches the official announced service area; (3) for industrial-level chips and devices of the BDS payload which are vulnerable to space radiations, the single-event effect monitoring and combating measures, as presented in this work, have been effective for LING QIAO satellite.