Aerospace surveying and mapping has become the main method of global earth observation. It can be divided into the geodetic observation satellites and the topographic surveying satellites according to the disciplines. In this paper, the geodetic satellites and photographic satellites are introduced respectively. Then, the existing problems in Chinese earth observation satellites are analyzed, and the comprehensive satellite with integrated payloads, the intensive microsatellite constellation and the intelligent observation satellite are proposed as three different development ideas for the future earth observation satellites. The possibility of the three ideas is discussed in detail, as well as the related key technologies.

Any single Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) technology has its vulnerability and limits, even the powerful Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is no exception. To provide continuous and reliable PNT information to users, the theory and technique of comprehensive PNT information system and resilient PNT application system have attracted great attention from Chinese scholars. We try to summarize the progress and development of the synthetic PNT system, including the proposal, the modification and the improvement of the comprehensive PNT, as well as the follow-up resilient PNT. The frame of China’s comprehensive PNT system consisted of comprehensive PNT infrastructure and comprehensive PNT application system is initially described; the achievements on some main PNT technologies are introduced; the conceptual models of resilient PNT are given; besides, existing researches on resilient function models and stochastic models are summarized according to different user scenarios.

The geodesy discipline has been evolving and constantly intersecting and merging with other disciplines in the last 50 years, due to the continuous progress of geodetic observation techniques and expansion of application fields. This paper first introduces the development and roles of geodesy and its formation. Secondly, the development status of geodesy discipline is analyzed from the progress of observation techniques and cross-discipline formation is analyzed from the expansion of application fields. Furthermore,the development trend of geodesy is stated from the perspective of national requirements and scientific developments. Finally, the sub-disciplines for geodesy are suggested at the present stage, based on the requirements of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and development status of geodesy itself, which can provide references for topic selection and fund application of geodetic scientific research.