Rome wasn't built in a day. Nearly two decades have passed since China launched the first Beidou satellite in 2000. Since then, more Beidou satellites have been sent into orbit, (form) the Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS).
In late 2012, BDS(begin) providing services to people in China and other parts of the AsiaPacific region. At the end of 2018, it started to provide global services. Now with two more Beidou satellites (launch) on Dec.16, 2019, BDS has 53 satellites in orbit. It (expect) to greatly improve the system's ability to serve (user) worldwide.
Although a satellitebased navigation system needs only 24 satellites to run (proper), having 53 allows for better coverage.
This is it works: a signal receiver on Earth measures its distance from at least three satellites by recording the amount of time it takes (receive) their signals. Then it can calculate its location. With so many satellites, BDS can provide more accurate calculation. While GPS provides meterlevel positioning accuracy, BDS reduces the error centimeters. This service is especially useful for land surveying, mapping, agriculture and automated driving.
Future plans call for a smarter and more accessible system with Beidou at its core, to come online by 2035. By then, we can probably say that Rome has finally been built.
