The Mithibiki system can cover Asia and function with the United States Global Positioning System (GPS).
On Thursday, Japan completed a successful satellite delivery as part of a more global geolocation system project. Its goal is to improve the navigation systems on cars and maps on smartphones with centimeter accuracy.
In the morning, the H-IIA carrier rocket was launched from the Tanegashima space center with satellite Mithibiki No. 2. Previously, such systems were used only by the military, but now they have been decided to extend them to civilian applications (from car navigation to mobile browsers). The country still relies on the American GPS system. This launch was part of a project to build an internal version using 4 satellites. The first one was put into orbit in 2010, and the third and fourth are being prepared for March 2018.
The Japanese system will continue to cooperate with GPS. Although residents of the country use the American version, but the presence of internal will help to take into account the highlands and high buildings, which knocks the signal.
A new network is planned to be introduced in all vital areas: from agriculture to the solution of everyday tasks. The main goal is to collect 7 satellites in orbit by 2023.
