China launches two AI-powered satellites aboard Smart Dragon-3 rocket

China has recently launched two AI-powered remote sensing satellites aboard Smart Dragon-3 rocket from waters off east China’s Shandong Province.

The primary purpose of these satellites into orbit is to support high-precision Earth and sea observations globally.

As reported by Xinhua, satellites were sent through the Smart Dragon-3 carrier rocket blasted off at 10:38 am near the city of Haiyang, delivering the Oriental Smart Eye (OSE) hyperspectral satellites 01 and 02 into planned orbit.

In this mission conducted by Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, the satellites weighing around 300kg each, hold a hyperspectral imager consisting 22 calibrated d spectral bands, a spatial resolution of 5 meters and an imaging swath of 300 km.

Each satellite features AI computing modules delivering up to 400 trillion operations per second.

These satellites would provide global revisit coverage every five days. The satellites can assess water quality, vegetation, crops, and mineral deposits. Besides providing the coverage, they can also interpret what they observe in orbit in real-time by using the AI systems.

The onboard processing reduces downlink data volumes and cuts down delivery times for actionable intelligence from days down to minutes.

The first satellite is based on collaboration between China and Indonesia, helping to protect Indonesian agricultural production by tracking crop growth and assessing disaster risks. The second is based on China-Uzberkistan collaboration.

The launch was China’s second sea-based orbital mission within two weeks.