Talk:BeiDou

Slashdotted NewScientist article
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10472-chinas-satellite-navigation-plans-threaten-galileo.html —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.20.76.96 (talk • contribs).
 * I added a new paragraph regarding the previous article. --Voidvector 05:34, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Compass SatNav
What is the difference between "Beidou" and "Compass" SatNav system? I understand that China is now trying to expand its Beidou system from just 3 satellites (sloppy; only for regional) into a 35-satellite system. But is this improved Beidou system the same as the new Compass system? See. Thank you. --Heilme 11:04, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Is there an authoritative capitalization of the "beidou" system? I see "Beidou" and "BeiDou" in the same articles (including this page). I know we are dealing with transliteration of Chinese, but it just feels sloppy to be inconsistent, unless there is a valid distinction. Grasping at straws, I might imagine that "BeiDou" is the system and "Beidou" refers to the satellites? FusionDude (talk) 16:35, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

Should be called Compass
This article should be renamed the Compass Navigation Satellite System.

Beidou is the name of the individual satellites in the system. The system itself is called "Compass." --128.135.96.162 21:50, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Improvements and comments

 * Potential sources to add
 * China's official news source info on latest launch.
 * Official news source on Compass
 * Again, Xinhua's Full text: China's Space Activities in 2006 has a paragraph on Beidou. Also translates it as "Plough."
 * Old, but detailed, info at astronautix.com
 * Google scholar search - most are not free, but good starting point for highly cite-able material. Sometimes you can get free access through your school, work, or library.

For what its worth, the names Compass and Beidou seem to be used interchangeably at present to whatever name suits the purpose of the news article being published.
 * Its name?

The following copy from GNSS sounded like a lot of info. It might be all original research, but I don't want Yongke to think I was dumping his edits to GNSS. If its good material, it should be integrated into this article first.
 * Copy from GNSS
 * China indicated it may expand its currently fully working regional system Beidou-1 into a global navigation system, the Beidou-2, which some western press has labeled Compass Navigation System (CNSS). The Beidou-1, which currently covers china and it's surrounding regions, was completed in 25th May of 2003, and became available to civilian use in April of 2004. However, the accuracy of the Beidou-1 regional system is limited and much was left to be desired. While some military and most of the civilian sectors had geared up to use the more accurate American made GPS or the Russian made GLONASS, it would be disadvantage to the government rely on foreign satellites in times of crisis. For these reasons, the Beidou-2 navigation system are currently being developed and the first experimental satellite for the system had being launched as of 3rd Feb 2007 with more planned for early 2007. - added by User:Yongke.

Big Dipper, not North Star
In Chinese, 北斗 (Beidou) is the Big Dipper. The North Star is 北極 (Beiji). Jpatokal 10:50, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

No clean-up needed
I can't see any need for clean up. Chasnor15 (talk) 20:33, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

BaiDou is composed of 3 systems
Being partly a Compass specialist (at least an author of a paper on Compass), I think the article is tolerable, but some thoughtful modification could help to make it more clear. I want to write more about Compass but this shall go in the Compass article. You see, the problem is that there is no such thing as "Beidou navigation system", but there are two independent systems: Beidou-1 and Beidou-2. So in fact having 2 independent articles would bemore logical. On the other hand, Beidou-1 is completely shrouded in secrecy, so not so much can be added on top of what is already said in this article. On the other hand, there is a lot more information on Beidou-2 which shall keep attracting atttention for many years to come. To make the naming issue more clear: Compass is a European name,used in Western literature, while the Chinese call it Beidou-2. I suggest to leave the article as is but after the Compass paper shall be done, edit the text to make the terminology and the relationship between the systems more clear. Asimsky (talk) 10:42, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Compass page augmented
I wrote a new Compass page with more details--Asimsky (talk) 09:08, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Remove the cleanup template
I have made some changes to the text, though it may still need to be expand or improved, but I suppose, it no longer needs to be cleaned up ;-) Hugo (talk) 22:15, 19 May 2010 (UTC)
 * When no one is objecting this, I would like to remove the cleanup tag in one week.Hugo (talk) 10:09, 20 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Removed the template. Hugo (talk) 12:08, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Potential resources
from Portal:Current events/2011 December 28 and from Talk:Global Positioning System 99.181.153.29 (talk) 08:00, 29 December 2011 (UTC)
 * China's Beidou satellite navigation system, a rival to the American Global Positioning System (GPS), becomes operational, offering navigation services on the Chinese mainland. (BBC)
 * Beijing Launches Its Own GPS Rival by Jeremy Page 28. December.2011 (page A9 in print).
 * Note that this has been corrected ...
 * China's Compass satellite navigation system, a rival to the American Global Positioning System (GPS), becomes operational, offering navigation services on the Chinese mainland. The system is expected to become available worldwide by 2020. (BBC) 99.19.45.81 (talk) 11:20, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

Merger discussion
I oppose the merger. The lead of the article on Compass says it's a different system.--Cattus talk 17:43, 1 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Support: The Compass article is quite short and could nicely be merged into the Beidou article, which could be set out to highlight the differences between the two systems; if the Beidou-2 sections are expanded as such that they could be standalone, then they could be split out at a future date. SalopianJames - previously Colds7ream (talk) 11:22, 14 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Support: I agree with James, having one article talking about both would be better. This article does a good job talking about Biedou 1, while the Compass article is short. The Compass article needs serious expansion to get it equal to this article.-- Navy Blue84  17:04, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

Ref broken
In this edit a &lt;ref&gt;—tag name has been removed and now 'Compass-IGSO3' satellite description in 'List of Satellites' table has a broken reference. --CiaPan (talk) 13:25, 10 January 2012 (UTC)
 * I found a replacement! :-) SalopianJames - previously Colds7ream (talk) 13:32, 13 January 2012 (UTC)
 * THX! [[file:smile.png]] CiaPan (talk) 15:10, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Re: Position calculation scalability
Compared to GPS, the process given here seems to have a lot of overhead in receiving and forwarding signals, and would, I guess, put a huge load on the satellites. GPS seems, on first reading, indefinitely more scalable. Is this correct? I know nothing about the subject, so apologies in advance 83.244.217.149 (talk) 10:36, 8 June 2012 (UTC)

BeiDou Navigation Satellite System=Beidou-2
The name COMPASS Navigation Satellite System has been abandoned, the only offical name now is BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, abbreviated to BDS.  according to :
 * BeiDou Satellite Navigation Experimental System= Beidou-1=a regional navigation system
 * BeiDou Navigation Satellite System = BeiDou-2 or former COMPASS = a global satellite navigation system

-Daveduv (talk) 03:24, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

Precision claim
I removed the following bit in italics from the Position Calculation section: "In 2007, the official Xinhua News Agency reported that the resolution of the BeiDou system was as high as 0.5 metres.considerably better than unaided GPS." On the face of it, this claim is completely untrue, as GPS carrier phase measurements and position calculation can do much, much better than that. I think what is meant is something like "much better in everyday performance than everyday GPS", but it's both hard to communicate and not really very meaningful in the end since we have to constrain the claim so much to make it true. siafu (talk) 17:41, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 17:59, 5 June 2016 (UTC)

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"more than 30 satellites"
Since June 23, 2020 the last of the planned satellites is in orbit now, the number is above 30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1nphyYr__E https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-06-24/Beidou-s-completion-of-global-reach-shows-China-s-innovation-momentum-RA7mjW5BT2/index.html

So, there is need for some update. -- Manorainjan  14:46, 25 June 2020 (UTC)

2 way communication? Claimed security risks
I have heard and read claims that Beidou requires 2 way communication to provide a position, thereby providing the possibility of tracking users and presumably providing false positioning. E.g.

The article does not include much technical information on this, the security implications and any other significant differences with other global navigation systems.

Can someone expand the article with this information with references? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lkingscott (talk • contribs) 07:59, 11 October 2022 (UTC)


 * This is almost certainly untrue. Voice of America (VOA) is basically just US state media like CCTV or CGTN is for China. This is most likely just anti-China fearmongering in the same way CGTN sometimes slanders the US.
 * From a practical point of view, it would be quite unnecessary to use two-way communication capabilities when no other satellite navigation system needs it to work well. Doing so would also open up BeiDou satellites to hacking via the other direction, which would be quite stupid. CompyN (talk) 03:24, 13 May 2023 (UTC)