When you hear the term “Infrastructure Giant,” do these images instantly flash through your mind: bridges spanning formidable chasms, high-speed railways crossing mountains and valleys, and tunnels buried deep underground… Absolutely. As the “Infrastructure Giant,” we are famously known for our “grand endeavors” on Earth. What you might not have anticipated is that the “Infrastructure Giant” has now reached for the stars by building satellites. In December 2025, PowerChina successfully developed and launched China’s first dedicated energy engineering satellite – the “PowerChina-1.” The “PowerChina-1” is a high-performance radar remote sensing satellite, equipped with an X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) payload, and possesses all-weather, all-day observation capabilities. It was jointly developed by PowerChina Chengdu Engineering Corporation and China University of Geosciences (Wuhan).
China’s dedicated energy engineering satellite, “PowerChina-1” This is no simple case of “crossing boundaries.” When infrastructure meets the cosmos, what makes this satellite so remarkable, and what roles can it fulfill? Why does infrastructure need satellites? Why would a construction company build a satellite? The underlying logic is actually quite straightforward: to install a “safety lock” for the nation’s critical infrastructure. The birth of this satellite marks a leap for China’s major engineering geological hazard monitoring and safety early warning systems, transitioning from traditional ground-based methods to an integrated “space-air-ground” collaborative model. The Past: Constrained by Conditions, Data Hard to Obtain In the past, engineering safety monitoring faced numerous obvious pain points and frustrating limitations at every turn: Poor Visibility: Traditional optical satellites were easily affected by weather and vegetation; encountering cloudy, rainy, or foggy conditions would render them effectively “blind.” Dependence on Others: Core deformation monitoring algorithms and software often relied on foreign technology, resulting not only in high data acquisition costs but also poor timeliness. It was like giving a physical to a giant; while we knew its location, trying to see if there were tiny cracks or hidden risks inside its structure was hampered by limited methods, and we were at the mercy of others. The Present: Heavenly Surveillance, Self-Reliant Control PowerChina Chengdu Engineering Corporation tackled these challenges head-on. Leveraging mega hydropower projects in Western China, through systematic theoretical innovation and key technological breakthroughs, they successfully established a complete technical chain – from satellite design and manufacturing, in-orbit measurement and control, and data downlink, to specialized information extraction and engineering services. This system represents a fundamental shift for China in this field, moving from “relying on external assistance” to achieving “self-reliance and controllable technology.” Now, without even leaving our offices, we can use the “PowerChina-1” satellite to provide early warnings for natural disasters like landslides and collapses, offering meticulous protection for infrastructure safety. Six Core Technologies Forge a “Space-Based Monitoring Great Wall” 01. Pioneering Full-Chain Technical System, One-Stop Service The project spearheaded by PowerChina Chengdu Engineering Corporation is the first to establish a closed-loop space-based monitoring technical system for major hydropower projects. It integrates operational requirements throughout the entire process – from satellite mission planning and payload configuration, to platform design and data processing – forming an integrated “satellite + algorithm + platform” solution. It’s like installing a “dedicated space butler” for Earth’s engineering projects.
Ground stations for data transmission in Miyun, Kashi, and Sanya 02. Breakthrough in Lightweight SAR Satellite: Halved Weight, Uncompromised Capability The independently developed high-precision X-band SAR satellite has a total mass controlled under 300kg. Compared to traditional SAR satellites (600–1000kg), its weight and cost are significantly reduced, yet its performance remains rock-solid, achieving the engineering goals of high reliability, low cost, and lightweight design. Truly achieving a combination of being light, strong, and economical! 03. High-Stability Platform Control: Nailing a ‘Star Pin’ Utilizing precise orbit determination and onboard time-frequency synchronization technology, it achieves an attitude pointing accuracy better than 0.01° and an orbit determination accuracy better than 10cm, laying a “space foundation” for millimeter-level deformation monitoring.
Achieving precise full coverage of target areas 04. Autonomous Ground Processing System: Lightning-Fast Processing A fully independently developed dedicated ground data preprocessing software, adopting a GPU parallel computing architecture with deep optimization of imaging algorithms, enables highly efficient end-to-end processing from raw echo data to standard image products. Both speed and accuracy are top-notch, truly embodying “Chinese computing power, Chinese speed.” 05. Intelligent Early Warning Platform: The Project’s ‘Dedicated Health Consultant’ A multi-source InSAR deformation automated processing platform has been developed, supporting differential interferometry and time-series InSAR. It synchronizes deformation product generation with the satellite’s revisit cycle, ushering engineering safety into a “near-real-time monitoring” mode.
The spatial information cloud platform rapidly provides unified deformation analysis services. 06. ‘Same-Orbit, Different-Frequency’ Constellation Observation: More Frequent, Comprehensive Coverage Innovatively proposing a new paradigm of “same-orbit, different-frequency” satellite networking and “space-air-ground” collaborative monitoring, it compresses the revisit cycle from 11 days down to a daily level, truly achieving all-weather, full-coverage, gap-free monitoring.
Pioneering a new model for high-precision surface deformation monitoring using same-orbit SAR satellite constellations. The “Industry Revolution” Brought by Satellites The combination of “Satellites + Infrastructure” is rewriting industry rules and leading the upgrade of industry safety management and control models. The technical system and commercialization model developed by this project possess strong transferability and serve as a model for the industry. In the future, they can be widely applied to national strategic projects such as cascade hydropower projects in western mountain valleys, long-distance linear transportation engineering, and major energy pipeline networks. This will propel the development of new quality productive forces in engineering safety monitoring and spur the growth of new high-end service industries driven by indigenous technology. Independent satellite technology is fostering innovative applications across multiple critical sectors including power, water conservancy, transportation, and urban safety. In 2025, State Grid launched the “Power Engineering” remote sensing satellite. Leveraging its sub-meter resolution, it enhances survey accuracy and disaster response efficiency for east-west power transmission corridors. China Railway Fifth Survey and Design Institute Group Co., relying on its “space-air-ground” collaborative surveying technical service system, rapidly constructed a full-section millimeter-level 3D point cloud model for the Ejin-Hami Railway, establishing a digital surveying service solution characterized by “high precision, high efficiency, and high quality.” Mianyang City in Sichuan Province piloted an intelligent housing safety monitoring network, using satellite monitoring and drone infrared scanning to inspect high-rise residential and public buildings, erecting an “aerial safety defense line”… An industry transformation centered on independent satellite technology is quietly gaining momentum, using Chinese technology to safeguard Chinese engineering projects.
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