US ‘afraid’ of Chinese satellite capable of imaging targets up to 2 million kilometers away

A Chinese government mission taking place in 2022 remained secret until a few days ago; Until a research group uncovered a study about a Chinese satellite with impressive capabilities.

A group of astronomers, in order to prevent a possible disaster caused by the giant asteroid 1994 PC1 used the Jilin-1 satellite Observe the giant rock located approximately 2 million kilometers from Earth. Scientists used the Jilin-1 satellite to collect data and photographs of asteroid 1994 PC1.

Thus, they determined the orbit of the rocky body and confirmed that it would not cause any collision with the Earth. Scientists recorded a total of 51 observations with the satellite’s instruments.

According to information published on the website South China Morning Post (SCMP)Some countries, such as the United States, have already expressed concerns about the impressive capabilities of the Chinese satellite. Right now, China uses technology only for scientific study, However, these countries fear that its use will spread to military applications.

“The Jilin-1 satellite needs to constantly adjust its altitude during its orbital movement in order to perform fixed-point imaging in the target observation area. A total of 51 shooting missions were conducted during the period January 17-21, 2022… Each of these shots lasts 15 seconds,” explain scientists in an article about the technology.

Chinese satellite can observe up to 2 million kilometers

Jilin-1 is considered a satellite constellation similar to SpaceX’s Starlink and has more than 100 satellites in its entirety. Before observing an asteroid 2 million kilometers from Earth, Scientists used technology to capture a rocket launch and even an F-22 jet in flight.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are working on similar satellites but have not yet developed their own versions.

According to SCMP, The aim of Chinese scientists is to include a network of ground-based radars in the satellite constellation to increase precision in target search. Currently, the United States has more than 8,000 satellites, but most of them are used for communications, unlike Chinese technology that can observe targets thousands of kilometers away.

“Follow-up experiments will be conducted to observe fainter near-Earth asteroids using existing space equipment,” the project scientists added.

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