Galileo Global Navigation Satellite System
Galileo Global Navigation Satellite System
Galileo Global Navigation Satellite System
Galileo logo
Galileo will be a free service. It is intended to provide horizontal and vertical positions measurements with metre-class precision, and better positioning services at high latitudes than GPS and GLONASS. As a further feature, Galileo will provide a global Search and Rescue (SAR) function. To do so, each satellite will be equipped with a transponder, which is able to transfer the distress signals from the user's transmitter to the Rescue Co-ordination Centre, which will then initiate the rescue operation. At the same time, the system will provide a signal to the user, informing them that their situation has been detected and that help is on the way. This latter feature is new and is considered a major upgrade compared to the existing GPS and GLONASS navigation systems, which do not provide feedback to the user.[3] The use of basic (low-accuracy) Galileo services will be free and open to everyone. The high-accuracy capabilities will be available for paying commercial users and for military use. The first satellites will bear the names of eleven-year-old Thijs from Belgium and nine-year- old Natalia from Bulgaria who are the first winners of the European Comission's Galileo children's drawing competition. Competition winners from the remaining 25 Member States will name the satellites which will be launched until 2019.[4]
History
In 1999, the different concepts (from Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom) for Galileo were compared and reduced to one by a joint team of engineers from all four countries. The first stage of the Galileo programme was agreed upon officially on 26 May 2003 by the European Union and the European Space Agency. The system is intended primarily for civilian use, unlike the United States system, which the U.S. military runs and uses on a primary basis. The U.S. reserves the right to limit the signal strength or accuracy of GPS, or to shut down public GPS access completely, so that only the U.S. military and its allies would be able to use it in time of conflict. Until 2000, the precision of the signal available to non-U.S.-military users was limited (due to a timing pulse distortion process known as selective availability). The European system will only be subject to shutdown for military purposes in extreme circumstances. It will be available at its full precision to both civil and military users. The European Commission had some difficulty funding the project's next stage, after several allegedly "per annum" sales projection graphs for the project were exposed in November 2001 as "cumulative" projections (which for each year projected, necessarily included all previous years of sales). The attention that was brought to this multi-billion euro exponentially growing error in sales forecasts resulted in a general awareness in the Commission and elsewhere that the program did not have near the return on investment that had been presented to the investors and decision-makers up until that point.[5] Additionally, following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States Government wrote to the European Union opposing the project, arguing that it would end the ability of the United
Galileo (satellite navigation) States to shut down satellite navigation in times of military operations. On 17 January 2002 a spokesman for the project stated that, as a result of U.S. pressure and economic difficulties, "Galileo is almost dead."[6] A few months later, however, the situation changed dramatically. Partially in reaction to the pressure exerted by the U.S. Government, European Union member states decided it was important to have a satellite-based positioning and timing infrastructure that the US could not easily turn off in times of political conflict.[7] The European Union and the European Space Agency agreed in March 2002 to fund the project, pending a review in 2003 (which was finalised on 26 May 2003). The starting cost for the period ending in 2005 is estimated at 1.1billion. The required satellites (the planned number is 30) will be launched throughout the period 20062010 and the system will be up and running and under civilian control from 2010. The final cost is estimated at 3billion, including the infrastructure on Earth, which is to be constructed in the years 2006 and 2007. The plan was for private companies and investors to invest at least two-thirds of the cost of implementation, with the EU and ESA dividing the remaining cost. An encrypted higher-bandwidth Commercial Service with improved accuracy would be available at an extra cost, with the base Open Service freely available to anyone with a Galileo-compatible receiver. Costs for the project have run 50% over initial estimates.[8] In June 2004, in a signed agreement with the United States, the European Union agreed to switch to a modulation known as BOC(1,1) (Binary Offset Carrier 1.1) allowing the coexistence of both GPS and Galileo, and the future combined use of both systems. The European Union also agreed to address the "mutual concerns related to the protection of allied and U.S. national security capabilities."[9] The first experimental satellite, GIOVE-A, was launched in 2005 and was followed by a second test satellite, GIOVE-B, launched in 2008. The first four operational satellites for navigation will be launched in 2011 and once this In-Orbit Validation (IOV) phase has been completed, additional satellites will be launched. On 30 November 2007 the 27 EU transportation ministers involved reached an agreement that it should be operational by 2013,[10] but later press releases suggest it was delayed to 2014.[11] Early 2007, the EU had yet to decide how to pay for the system and the project was said to be "in deep crisis" due to lack of more public funds.[12] German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee was particularly doubtful about the consortium's ability to end the infighting at a time when only one testbed satellite had been successfully launched. Although a decision was yet to be reached, on 13 July 2007[13] EU countries discussed cutting 548m ($755m, 370m) from the union's competitiveness budget for the following year and shifting some of that cash to other parts of the financing pot, a move that could meet part of the cost of the union's Galileo satellite navigation system. European Union research and development projects could be scrapped to overcome a funding shortfall. In November 2007, it was agreed to reallocate funds from the EU's agriculture and administration budgets[14] and to soften the tendering process in order to invite more EU companies.[15] In April 2008, the EU transport ministers approved the Galileo Implementation Regulation. This allowed the 3.4bn to be released from the EU's agriculture and administration budgets.[16] This will allow the issuing of contracts to start construction of the ground station and the satellites. In June 2009, the European Court of Auditors published a report, pointing out governance issues, substantial delays and budget overruns that led to project stalling in 2007, leading to further delays and failures.[17] In October 2009, the European Commission cut the number of satellites from 28 to 22, with plans to order the remaining six at a later time. It also announced that the first OS, PRS and SoL signal will be available in 2013 and the CS and SOL sometime later. Current budget for 2006-2013 period planned for 3.4billion was also considered as insufficient.[18] The think tank Open Europe has estimated the total cost of Galileo from start to completion, and then running it over a 20 year period, at a 22.2 billion, which will be borne entirely by taxpayers. Under the original estimates (from 2000) this cost would have been 7.7 billion, of which only 2.6 billion was to be borne by taxpayers and the rest by private investors.[19] In November 2009, a ground station for Galileo was inaugurated near Kourou (French Guiana).[20]
Galileo (satellite navigation) The launch of the first four in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites is currently planned for the 2nd half of 2011, while the launch of full operational capability (FOC) satellites is planned to start in late 2012. As of March 2010 it was verified that the budget for Galileo would only be available to provide the 4 IOV and 14 FOC satellites by 2014, with no funds currently committed to bring the constellation above this 60% capacity.[21] Paul Verhoef, the then current satellite navigation program manager at the European Commission indicated that this limited funding would have serious consequences commenting at one point "To give you an idea, that would mean that for three weeks in the year you will not have satellite navigation" in reference to the currently proposed 18 vehicle constellation. In July 2010 the European Commission estimated further delays and additional costs of the project to grow up to 1.5-1.7 billion and moved the estimated date of completion to 2018. After it's completed, the system will need to be subsidized by governments at 750 million per year.[22] An additional 1.9 billion was planned to be spent bringing the system up to the full complement of 30 satellites (27 operational + 3 active spares).[8] [23] In December 2010 EU ministers in Brussels have voted Prague (Czech Republic) as the headquarters of the Galileo project.[24] In January 2011, infrastructure costs up to 2020 were estimated at 5.3billion. In that same month, Wikileaks revealed the opinion of CEO of German satellite company OHB-System, Berry Smutny. He is quoted saying that Galileo "is a stupid idea that primarily serves French interests".[25] The BBC understands 500m euros (440m) will become available to make the extra purchase, taking Europe's version of GPS from 18 operational satellites in the next few years to 24.[26] First two Galileo In-Orbit Validation satellites will be launched by Soyuz flown from French Guiana in October 2011[27]
International involvement
In September 2003, China joined the Galileo project. China was to invest 230million (USD 302 million, GBP 155 million, CNY 2.34 billion) in the project over the following years.[28] In July 2004, Israel signed an agreement with the EU to become a partner in the Galileo project.[29] On 3 June 2005 the EU and Ukraine signed an agreement for Ukraine to join the project, as noted in a press release.[30] As of November 2005, Morocco also joined the programme. On 12 January 2006, South Korea joined the programme. In November 2006, China abandoned the programme and decided to develop an independent global navigation system: Beidou navigation system.[31] On 30 November 2007, the 27 member states of the European Union unanimously agreed to move forward with the project, with plans for bases in Germany and Italy. Spain did not approve during the initial vote, but approved it later that day. This greatly improves the viability of the Galileo project: "The EU's executive had previously said that if agreement was not reached by January 2008, the long-troubled project would essentially be dead."[32] On 3 April 2009, Norway too joined the programme pledging 68.9 million toward development costs and allowing its companies to bid for the construction contracts. Norway while not a member of the EU is a member of the ESA.[33]
Services
The Galileo system will have five main services: Open Access Navigation: This will be 'free to air' and for use by the mass market; Simple timing and positioning down to 1 metre. Commercial Navigation (Encrypted): High accuracy to the centimetre; Guaranteed service for which service providers will charge fees. Safety Of Life Navigation: Open service; For applications where guaranteed accuracy is essential; Integrity messages will warn of errors.
Galileo (satellite navigation) Public Regulated Navigation (Encrypted): Continuous availability even in time of crisis; Government agencies will be main users. Search And Rescue: System will pick up distress beacon locations; Feasible to send feedback, confirming help is on its way. Other secondary services will also be available.
The concept
Each satellite will have two types of atomic clocks 4 in total (2 rubidium frequency standards and 2 passive hydrogen masers) - critical to any sat-nav system and a number of other components. These clocks will provide an accurate timing signal for a receiver to calculate the time that it takes the signal to reach the target. This information is used to calculate the position of the receiver by trilaterating the difference in received signals from multiple satellites. For more information of the concept of global satellite navigation systems, see GNSS and GNSS positioning calculation.
Satellite system
Galileo satellite test beds: GIOVE
In 2004 the Galileo System Test Bed Version 1 (GSTB-V1) project validated the on-ground algorithms for Orbit Determination and Time Synchronisation (OD&TS). This project, led by ESA and European Satellite Navigation Industries, has provided industry with fundamental knowledge to develop the mission segment of the Galileo positioning system.[40] GIOVE-A is the first GIOVE (Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element) test GIOVE-A was successfully launched satellite. It was built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), and 28 December 2005. successfully launched on 28 December 2005 by the European Space Agency and the Galileo Joint. Operation of GIOVE-A ensured that Galileo meets the frequency-filing allocation and reservation requirements for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a process that was required to be complete by June 2006. GIOVE-B, built by Astrium and Thales Alenia Space, has a more advanced payload than GIOVE-A. It was successfully launched on 27 April 2008 at 22:16 UTC (4.16 a.m. (Baikonur time) aboard a Soyuz-FG/Fregat rocket provided by Starsem. A third satellite, GIOVE-A2, was originally planned to be built by SSTL for launch in the second half of 2008.[41] Construction of GIOVE-A2 was terminated due to the successful launch and in-orbit operation of GIOVE-B. The GIOVE Mission[42] [43] segment operated by European Satellite Navigation Industries is exploiting the GIOVE-A/B satellites to provide experimental results based on real data to be used for risk mitigation for the IOV satellites that will follow on from the testbeds. ESA organised the global network of ground stations to collect the measurements of GIOVE-A/B with the use of the GETR receivers for further systematic study. GETR receivers are supplied by Septentrio as well as the first Galileo navigation receivers to be used to test the functioning of the system at further stages of its deployment. Signal analysis of GIOVE-A/B data has confirmed successful operation of all the Galileo signals with the tracking performance as expected.
Coins
The European Satellite Navigation project was selected as the main motif of a very high value collectors' coin: the Austrian European Satellite Navigation commemorative coin, minted on 1 March 2006. The coin has a silver ring and niobium pill, colour gold-brown. In the reverse, the niobium portion depicts navigation satellites orbiting the Earth. The ring shows different modes of transport (an aeroplane, a car, a container ship, a train and a lorry) for which satellite navigation was developed.
References
The Galileo Project GALILEO Design consolidation, European Commission, 2003 Guenter W. Hein, Jeremie Godet, et al.: Status of Galileo Frequency and Signal Design (http://ec.europa.eu/ dgs/energy_transport/galileo/doc/galileo_stf_ion2002.pdf), Proc. ION (http://www.ion.org/) GPS 2002. Jean-Luc Issler, Gunter W. Hein, et al.: Galileo Frequency and Signal Design (http://www.gpsworld.com/ gpsworld/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=61244). GPS World, vol. 14, no. 6, June, 2003, pp.3037. Dee Ann Divis: Military role for Galileo emerges (http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2002/ 020514-gps.htm). GPS World, May 2002, Vol. 13, No. 5, p.10. Dr Richard North: Galileo - The Military and Political Dimensions. 2004. Jaizki Mendizabal; Roc Berenguer; Juan Melendez (2009). GPS and Galileo (http://books.google.com/ ?id=t1lBTH42mOcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=GPS+and+GALILEO#v=onepage&q&f=false). McGraw Hill. ISBN978-0071598699.
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Further reading
Psiaki, M. L., Block Acquisition of weak GPS signals in a software receiver, Proceedings of ION GPS 2001, the 14th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of the Institute of Navigation, Salt Lake City, Utah, September 1114, 2001, pp.28382850. Bandemer, B., Denks, H., Hornbostel, A., Konovaltsev, A., Performance of acquisition methods for Galileo SW receivers, European Journal of Navigation, Vol.4, No. 3, pp 179, July 2006 Van Der Jagt, Culver W. Galileo : The Declaration of European Independence : a dissertation (2002). CALL #JZ1254 .V36 2002, Description xxv, 850 p. : ill. ; 30cm. + 1 CD-ROM
External links
Official websites
European GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA) (http://www.gsa.europa.eu/) Europa Official website (http://www.esa.int/esaNA/galileo.html) ESA
Other
News and Information (http://www.galileo-navigationssystem.com/indexe.htm) Host Europe The GEO6 project (http://www.gnss-geo6.org/) EU-funded project devoted to the investigation in scientific applications using GNSS, particularly GALILEO PACIFIC Project (http://www.prs-pacific.eu/) PACIFIC GREAT project (http://www.greatproject.org/) EU-funded project to develop GALILEO Receivers for Mass Market Applications AGILE project (http://www.galileo-in-lbs.com/) EU-funded project devoted to the analysis of LBS applications and how Galileo will contribute to enhance them u-blox 6 GALILEO GPS chips and modules (http://www.u-blox.com/en/u-blox-6-technology.html) Receiver chips and modules to simultaneously track GPS (GLONASS) and GALILEO satellites NTLab GALILEO + GPS + GLONASS chips (http://www.ntlab.com/) First chips to simultaneously track GPS, GALILEO and GLONASS satellites. Press coverage Green light for Galileo project (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1893022.stm) - BBC News, 26 March 2002 China joins EU's satellite network (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3121682.stm) - BBC News, 19 September 2003 EU-US strike sat-navigation deal (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3839809.stm) - BBC News, 26 June 2004 Europe presses ahead on sat-navigation (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4085651.stm) - BBC News, 10 December 2004 Four Galileo spacecraft ordered (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4115761.stm) - BBC News, 21 December 2004 Dead heat for Galileo companies (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4308975.stm) - BBC News, 1 March 2005 Consortia combine to run Galileo (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4627661.stm) - BBC News, 27 June 2005 Q&A: Europe's Galileo project (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4555276.stm) - BBC News, 26 December 2005
Galileo (satellite navigation) Europe launches Galileo satellite (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4555298.stm) - BBC News, 28 December 2005 First Galileo signals received (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4610452.stm) - BBC News, 13 January 2006 First commercial Galileo receiver (http://www.edn.com/article/CA6373171.html) - EDN, 18 September 2006 EU seeks input on use of Galileo navigation system (http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2006/12/11/ tech-galileo.html) - CBC, 11 December 2006 Galileo System in Deep Crisis (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6634285.stm) - BBC News, 8 May 2007 Galileo Project in deep crisis (http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/05/08/galileo.troubles.ap) - CNN, 8 May 2007 Galileo firms miss key deadline (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6644697.stm) BBC News, 10 May 2007 EU looks to public funds for satellite system (http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/06/08/ tech-galileo-funding.html), CBC News, 10 June 2007 Galileo demo sat to be despatched (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7278616.stm), BBC News, 6 March 2008
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