Shortly after the Galileo satellite using the E24 PRN code started transmitting, its sibling began transmitting using code E30. Several stations participating in the International GNSS Service Multi-GNSS Experiment are tracking the new satellites.
Prof. René Warnant from the University of Liege has reported that as of 10 October, their PolaRx4 and PolaRxS receivers (but not yet NetR9 receivers) are tracking one of the new Galileo satellites using code E24.
Meanwhile, the latest BeiDou satellite, BeiDou I2-S, appears to have reached its orbital slot with a nominal nodal longitude of 95 degrees east.
Galileo’s latest pair of full operational capability (FOC) satellites now orbit proudly in space, “performing beautifully.” The first two FOC birds may soon shift their focus from navigation to gravity experiments instead.
Meanwhile, as the European Space Agency tries to fly, European industry seeks firmly grounded support in the form of an industrial policy and economic stimuli, expressing concern that the current situation “might jeopardize the achievement of the main objections of the European GNSS programmes.”
Alba and Oriana (aka Galileo satellites 9 and 10), launched on Sept. 11, are drifting towards their target orbital positions. Thruster firings will resume around the end of October to stop their drift and achieve fine positioning in orbit. Their control now rests in the electronic hands of the Galileo Control Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.
Gravity Probe. The two satellites launched last September have not fared so well. Injected into the wrong orbit by a faulty Soyuz rocket, they were moved to a “usable” orbit in December 2014, reducing orbit eccentricity and avoiding the high radiation doses in the Van Allen belts, but still not high enough to function fully as navigation satellites. The European Commission (EC) and ESA remain convinced that Doresa and Milean (satellites 5 and 6) will be able to contribute in some limited fashion to Galileo’s PNT solutions, but they are also preparing alternate roles for the pair.
Together with Sytèmes de Référence Temps Espace (SYRTE, or Time-Space Reference Systems department) of the Observatoire de Paris and the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) at the University of Bremen, ESA has explored taking advantage of the combination of Dorena’s and Milesa’s eccentricity (about 0.15 in the corrected orbits), the passive hydrogen maser (PHM) on-board clocks’ high accuracy-stability (~10−14 per day), and high orbital precision to perform a measurement of the gravitational redshift. The redshift or Einstein shift is a process by which electromagnetic radiation originating from a source that is in a gravitational field is reduced in frequency, or redshifted, when observed in a region of a weaker gravitational field. The three organizations believe that the two satellites can help measure this effect with a superior accuracy compared to today’s state of the art, based on Gravity Probe A, an experiment performed in 1976.
These tests are noted to have a high scientific relevance, as many alternative theories of gravitation predict violations of the Einstein Equivalence Principle at some level of accuracy. Two parallel research activities, with SYRTE and ZARM, will be launched by ESA to assess this potential in greater detail.
See What the Future Brings. Two further Galileo satellites are scheduled for launch by end of this year. Next year the deployment of the Galileo system will be boosted by the entry into operation of a specially customized Ariane 5 launcher that can double, from two to four, the number of satellites that can be placed into orbit by a single launch.
We Want What They Got. Earlier this month, the 29-company Galileo Services association, made up of European chipset and receiver suppliers and associated service providers, issued a position paper calling for “a coordinated industrial policy to support the European economy,” specifically that portion of the economy based on satellite positioning, navigation and timing. The companies jointly complain that in the United States, Russia, China and Japan, dedicated national strategies, including “massive funding” for both R&D and manufacturing, support GNSS downstream industries — but in Europe, no such backing exists. The un-level playing field imperils European commercial activity.
“As things stand, in a few years, it will be difficult or nearly impossible for European industry to survive in the highly competitive GNSS global market,” the position paper reads. “Unless an effective and long-term strategy is put in place during the Galileo early services exploitation phase (2016–2020), the window of opportunity for European industry to benefit from the current GNSS market boom will soon be closed.”
“Europe Must Succeed in the Global Navigation Market Race” (the full document is available here) calls upon European governments to devise and adopt a strategic plan to support Galileo’s downstream suppliers and manufacturers. The desired strategy connotes money and favorable regulations.
Europe governmental hands may be a bit tied by a U.S.-European agreement that neither will put up barriers discriminating against each other’s satnav systems. China and Russia have not signed the agreement and so are not bound by its restrictions; the two countries can freely make “massive procurements equivalent to several billions of euros from the public sector, as anchor customer, which radically boosts private investment,” according to the Galileo Services paper. Further, the United States can step around the agreement’s terms via military contracts to U.S. manufacturers, leveraging their commercial ventures.
Thirty-three or Bust. The report continues to reference the magic number 33 percent, the traditional European global market share in any high-tech sector. European industry partners estimate they hold 20 percent of the worldwide satnav currently, if even that, and, ominously, they see that share declining. They cast U.S. manufacturers in the dominant role: “80 percent of well-established market owners are of U.S. origin.” This is not the same as an 80 percent market share, but it still sounds scary to European ears. Meanwhile, “the size and growth of Chinese industry, which has already in just a few years outperformed European industry in the field of telecommunications, is particularly worrying” to satnav concerns.
Section Two of “Europe Must Succeed” defines the strategic plan that the industry partners would like to see:
quantitative objectives in terms of market share, revenue, and job creation;
clear support actions in terms of public procurement and regulations;
key performance indicators to assess progress towards set milestones.
Section Three lays out a series of recommended key support actions for public institutions to undertake, and Section Four proposes a Galileo Services Forum, a permanent and formal arena for discussions between the European Commission, the European GNSS Agency, and the European Space Agency on the one hand, and European GNSS downstream industry on the other.
Interestingly, while the report in an earlier section calls out a number of promising application and service markets — basically all the usual suspects, from connected vehicles to offshore infrastructure — it singles out one, “the leading position of Europe in GNSS security and resilience,” for particular attention. It “should be strengthened, as it is critical for today’s and tomorrow’s markets.”
The report also makes a pointed allusion to European industry’s “strong reputation for quality and reliability.” This note is not sounded elsewhere in the paper, suggesting a fear that price trumps quality in today’s marketplace. A well-founded fear.
Galileo Services represents more than 180 members. Its most active and representative GNSS players include: Airbus Defence & Space, Ansaldo STS, CGI, European Satellite Services Provider (ESSP), Eutelsat, France Developpement Conseil, Fugro, GMV, Guide, Hertz Systems, Honeywell, Indra, Ineco, JAVAD GNSS, Kayser-Threde, Kongsberg, M3 Systems, NavCert, NLR, NovAtel, Nottingham Scientific Limited, OHB, QinetiQ, Septentrio, Catapult, Sogei, Spirent, Thales and Veripos.
Europe’s ninth and tenth Galileo satellites being fueled by technicians in protective SCAPE suits within the Guiana Space Centre’s 3SB preparation building on Aug. 24. (Photo:ESA)
It has been a good late summer for the European Galileo programme. The latest launch on the night of 10 and 11 September has got the number of orbiting satellites in the EU’s GNSS constellation into double figures at last, and one-third of the way towards the ultimate target of 30.
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) press releases around the launch were positively euphoric, and there were many pictures of smiling ESA launch teams. And so there should be. The two new satellites (the fifth and sixth fully operational capability (FOC) versions named Alba and Oriana) will now inch their way towards their operational orbits and will soon be joined by two more satellites to be launched in December.
However, as we already know, one of the in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites (Sif) is not very well, having suffered a power failure in late May, and the first two FOC satellites (Doresa and Milena) ended up in the wrong orbit. At the considerable expense of a significant part of their fuel payloads, these two craft are now established in a more useful orbit and are the current subject of testing to determine the exact contribution they can make to the Galileo services.
The Commission and ESA are convinced that the outcome will be positive, with Doresa and Milena able to contribute to the network — or at least not degrade the network’s navigation performance. A final decision on if and/or how these two satellites integrate into the system will be made sometime next year.
In any case, they will be used for the provision of Galileo’s Search and Rescue services. And they are also to be made available for scientific research. One possible science area that has been discussed is to ‘repurpose’ the satellites to measure the slow down of time due to the Earth’s gravitational field as predicted by Einstein’s theory of relativity.
However, more worryingly, there are rumours of various glitches and performance issues with other in-orbit members of the constellation. Hopefully, they are just rumours; only time will tell.
Position Paper
Not surprisingly, those wanting to use the system are getting a tad frustrated. On Sept. 1, Galileo Services, a non-profit organisation involving 180 members including most of the active players in the EU GNSS industry, published a position paper entitled “Europe Must Succeed in the Global Navigation Market Race.”
The organisation’s aim is to foster an end-to-end vision of the Galileo system that can fully respond to user and market needs. The paper looks at the options to strengthen the competitiveness of the European GNSS downstream sector in the global market and calls for better coordination between the public and private sectors to develop new technologies, applications, services and industries in Europe as a key factor for success.
In particular, the paper stresses the necessity to urgently establish a European strategic plan to enhance Europe’s GNSS downstream industry’s competitiveness and to foster the uptake of the European GNSS, Galileo and the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), with the aim to corner 33 percent of the global GNSS downstream market for Europe by 2025.
Galileo Services argues that unless an effective and long-term strategy is in place during the Galileo early services exploitation phase — from 2016, the current official start date for services — the window of opportunity for European industry will be closed. Europe’s goal of achieving GNSS autonomy is also at risk. The paper warns that Galileo is just one of three new GNSS solutions, along with the Russian GLONASS and Chinese BeiDou, that are complementing the U.S.’s GPS — and most applications do not require four GNSS constellations.
The target of European autonomy will be achieved if and only if Galileo is widely used with equipment designed and manufactured in Europe, as well as applications and services developed in Europe, concludes the paper.
More R&D Support
Part of the strategy should be enhanced support for EU GNSS technologies and applications. The European GNSS Agency (GSA) has just launched a new research support channel for GNSS chipset and receiver technologies in Europe.
The Fundamental Elements programme has a projected budget of EUR 100 million over the period 2015 to 2020 and is part, says the GSA, of an overall strategy of market uptake initiatives in accordance with EU regulations. “For the first time, EU regulation provides a financing tool for the market uptake of European GNSS chipsets and receivers,” said GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides in launching the new programme.
The Fundamental Elements programme complements the EU’s current Horizon 2020 research programme that focuses on adoption of Galileo and EGNOS via content and application development.
Two types of financing will be available via the Fundamental Elements programme: grants and procurement. Grants will be provided to cover up to 70 percent of funding requirements for a project, and intellectual property rights will stay with the beneficiary under the condition that the developed product is actively commercialised.
Procurement (at 100 percent funding) will be used only in cases where keeping intellectual property rights allow for the better fulfilment of the programme’s overall objectives. For example, by licensing it to different potential manufacturers rather than creating a monopoly supplier.
Meanwhile, EGNOS Continues
Of course, one EU GNSS, EGNOS, is operational. The GSA proudly announced that after extensive testing, the latest space segment — the SES-5 GEO satellite — is now fully functional. This will ensure the long-term service of EGNOS until at least 2026 and enable a range of performance improvements, including greater stability during periods of high ionospheric activity.
The SES-5 is a first step in the complete renewal of the EGNOS Space Segment, including the transition to dual-frequency, multi-constellation services. The renewal will be completed by the introduction of the ASTRA-5B signals and the procurement of a new EGNOS payload, both planned for 2016.
In parallel, the GSA and ESA have met formally to launch activities to develop the system further following the signing of a working agreement for EGNOS in July. Under the agreement, ESA will be responsible for the development and procurement of future EGNOS evolutions, such as the forthcoming release (V2.4.2), and a new generation of the EGNOS system (V3).
One of the annual gatherings of the whole European GNSS value chain will take place in October in Berlin with the Satellite Masters conference and awards ceremony. We can be sure that comforting words will be spoken by persons from the Commission, the GSA and ESA about their future plans and present progress. But the real buzz of this event is from the showcase of new ideas and applications for Galileo and EGNOS from pretty much every corner of Europe and beyond.
Despite the uncertainties expressed by some big industrial players, and slow progress in establishing the actual infrastructure, there is still an entrepreneurial enthusiasm from the ‘small guys’ to get involved in this space-based business.
I have attended these events for a few years now. One of the most enthusiastic winners of recent years is JOHAN, a sports application named after renowned Dutch soccer player and now sport commentator Johan Cruyff.
The application is the brainchild of Dutch graduate Jelle Reichert, whom I first met when he won the 2013 European Satellite Navigation Competition with this innovative EGNOS-enhanced tracking idea. “We are now operational with our first four clients! And in a final testing phase we are making the system ready for a commercial launch at the beginning of 2016,” he tells me. “We also just have an investor on board, which allows us to hire personnel and take the final steps to become really commercially ready.”
In just 18 months, Jelle’s idea has been brought into life with support from GSA and ESA. The JOHAN sports tracker and application helps improve teams by monitoring on-field performance. The system’s small, lightweight trackers, or pebbles, use GNSS technology such as EGNOS to ensure reliability and precision.
The trackers are small and light so they can fit into training vests worn by players across a variety of field sports, though early adopters have all been football teams so far. The trackers measure location, speed, distance, acceleration and orientation statistics, which are then visualized in an online data platform for coaches and players. This allows coaches to monitor workload and performance, and get tactical information and event analysis and ensure players’ strengths are used to the whole team’s advantage. Players can spot weaknesses and improve their individual game over time.
“You can see who is training too hard and who has a higher chance of injury, as well as who is strong in which performance aspects, such as endurance, sprint, agility or recovery,” explains Jelle.
I look forward to hearing about lots more grassroots GNSS innovation in Berlin.
And Finally … An Out-of-This-World App?
Take me to the moon! And why not, indeed? It appears that Galileo could be a vital part of an interplanetary navigation system. Or at least it could help (with GPS) spacecraft to routinely navigate to the moon.
A paper in Acta Astronautica highlights the strict requirements in terms of performance, flexibility and cost for all the spacecraft subsystems required to navigate to the moon. GNSS could introduce an easier way to provide an autonomous orbit determination system using an on-board GNSS receiver. While GNSS receivers have already been used successfully to pilot craft in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), their use for very High Earth Orbit (HEO) up to and including the Moon is an active research area.
The study from researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) made use of the Spirent GSS8000 multi-GNSS constellation simulator, which supports simultaneously the GPS and Galileo systems with L1, L5, E1 and E5 frequency bands. It showed that GNSS signals can be tracked up to the Moon’s surface, but would need new, more sensitive GNSS receiver technology. The paper describes a possible navigation solution that uses a double constellation GPS-Galileo receiver aided by an on-board orbital filter system to improve the accuracy of the navigation solution and achieve the required sensitivity. Without the filter, position error below 700 metres is possible, but the orbital filter increases the position accuracy to within about 100 metres.
Vincenzo Capuano from the EPFL team tells me that a further paper on the use of an GPS L1 C/A based orbital filter for Moon transfer orbits will be published soon, which also shows an achievable accuracy of a few hundred meters. So who needs expensive tracking stations for a flight to the moon?
But the work also has a very practical down-to-Earth application. The EPFL team is developing more sensitive GNSS receivers to pick up these weak signals, and the new receivers could find applications on Earth where current receivers often struggle to get a location, such as inside buildings or in built-up areas, where signals are weak.
Andy Yin, international sales director at ComNav Technology Ltd., talks about the company’s M300 Pro and new OEM boards at INTERGEO 2015, which was held Sept. 15-17 in Stuttgart, Germany.
The M300 Pro GNSS reference station receiver integrates ComNav’s new-generation OEM board and includes web service and remote control features.
The first OEM board, which can support all GNSS constellations (GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo), will be released at the end of September, according to ComNav.
Soyuz launches Galileo 9 and 10 into orbit on Sept.10. (Credit: Arianespace)
Arianespace’s 12th Soyuz flight from the Spaceport in French Guiana orbited two more spacecraft for Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system on Sept. 10.
2015 is an important year for Arianespace at the service of European institutions, with 11 payloads to be orbited utilizing the company’s family of Soyuz, the heavy-lift Ariane 5 and lightweight Vega, Arianespace Chairman and CEO Stéphane Israël said after the liftoff.
Departing the Spaceport’s ELS launch complex near the city of Sinnamary at the planned exact liftoff time of 11:08:10 p.m. (local time in French Guiana), Soyuz deployed its two latest Galileo passengers after a flight of just under three hours and 47 minutes. This included the propulsion of Soyuz’ first three stages and two burns of its Fregat upper stage.
Israël noted these are the ninth and tenth Galileo spacecraft orbited by Arianespace, joining a constellation that ultimately will consist of 30 satellites. The satellites, named Alba and Oriana, are the latest FOC (Full Operational Capability) satellites, which are to operate in Galileo’s Orbital Plane A — one of three orbital planes being populated by the European navigation spacecraft.
The European Commission is managing and funding Galileo’s FOC phase, during which the network’s complete operational and ground infrastructure is being deployed. Design and procurement agent responsibilities have been delegated to the European Space Agency (ESA) on the Commission’s behalf.
Arianespace is set to launch two more satellites with Soyuz by year-end, before handing this task over to Ariane 5 beginning in 2016 with a launch carrying four satellites. One more Soyuz and two more Ariane 5s will continue the activity in 2017-2018.
“Galileo keeps us busy, and Arianespace is very proud to be the reference partner of this European flagship space program,” Israël said.
After expressing his appreciation to the European Commission and ESA for their confidence, he noted that 2015 is an important year for Arianespace at the service of European institutions, with 11 payloads to be orbited utilizing the company’s family of Soyuz, the heavy-lift Ariane 5 and lightweight Vega.
“These satellites address all space applications: navigation, Earth observation, science and technology, meteorology and secured communications,” Israël explained. “Thanks to our launcher family, we are fully capable of addressing all needs of European institutions.”
Soyuz’ flight with Galileo’s Alba and Oriana satellites occurred during the eighth of 12 Arianespace missions planned for 2015 — which will be a new record for the company’s launcher family. Its preparations at the Spaceport included the first use of the new FCube fueling facility, which is part of improvements in French Guiana to increase launch capacity, flexibility and schedule robustness.
Israël acknowledged those who contributed to this latest Arianespace success, including the Russian federal space agency, Roscosmos, and the country’s industrial partners; along with the European support companies; the French CNES space agency, and Arianespace own teams.
Galileo 9 and 10 lift off. (Credit: ESA)
Galileo 9 and 10 lift off.(Credit: ESA)
Soyuz launches Galileo 9 and 10 into orbit on Sept.10. (Credit: Arianespace)
Soyuz launches Galileo 9 and 10 into orbit on Sept.10. (Credit: Arianespace)
The European GNSS Agency (GSA) has launched a new research and development funding mechanism supporting development of Galileo chipsets and receivers, intended to enable the adoption of Galileo and EGNOS-powered services across all market segments. The Fundamental Elements programme supports activities that will be carried out from 2015-2020 with a projected budget of EUR 100 million.
Fundamental Elements is part of an overall strategy of market uptake initiatives led by the GSA and in accordance with EU regulation.
“For the first time, EU regulation provides a financing tool for the market uptake of European GNSS chipsets and receivers,” said GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides. “The GSA will be instrumental in ensuring that the new Fundamental Elements programme contributes to the successful integration of Galileo and EGNOS.”
Fundamental Elements complements the EU’s Horizon 2020 research programme. While Horizon 2020 aims to foster adoption of Galileo and EGNOS via content and application development, Fundamental Elements projects will focus on supporting the development of innovative chipset and receiver technologies.
Fundamental Elements will provide two types of financing: grants and procurement. Grants will be provided with financing currently foreseen for up to 70 percent of the total value of the grant agreement. Intellectual property rights will stay with the beneficiary under the condition that the developed product is aimed at commercialization.
In the case of grants, the GSA publishes two annual Grant Plans, one for EGNOS and another for Galileo. These plans indicate the envisaged grants to be awarded per year. The Fundamental Elements grants are included in these plans and can be consulted before the publication of the Call for Proposals. The annual Grant Plans include a brief description of the projects and the indicative budget and timings. Procurement will be used only in cases where keeping intellectual property rights allow for the better fulfillment of the programme’s objectives.
UPDATED 08/28/15 with information from the European Space Agency.
Europe’s ninth and tenth Galileo satellites were fueled Aug. 24 by technicians in protective SCAPE suits within the Guiana Space Centre’s 3SB preparation building. This left the satellites ready to be attached to their launcher upper stage in preparation for launch. (Photo:ESA)
The two European Galileo navigation satellites for Arianespace’s next mission from French Guiana have been fueled at the Spaceport, readying them for integration with their Soyuz launcher.
Galileo full operational capability (FOC) satellites 9 and 10 were “topped off” during activity this week at the Spaceport’s S3B payload preparation facility, further advancing preparations for the Sept. 10 mission — which is designated Flight VS12 in Arianespace’s launcher family numbering system, signifying the 12th liftoff of the medium-lift Soyuz vehicle from French Guiana. Lift-off is scheduled for 02:08:10 p.m. UTC.
Flight VS12’s satellites are the fifth and sixth in Galileo’s FOC phase. They were produced by OHB System, with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. supplying their navigation payloads that will generate precise positioning measurements and services around the world.
The Sept. 10 mission will be the fifth Soyuz flight with Galileo satellites performed by Arianespace from French Guiana — a series that began with the Russian-built launcher’s inaugural liftoff at the Spaceport in Oct. 2011.
At full deployment, the Galileo program will consist of 30 satellites — comprising operational spacecraft and reserves — situated on three circular medium Earth orbits at some 23,200 km. altitude inclined 56 degrees to the equator. The constellation — and associated ground infrastructure — will provide high-quality positioning, navigation and timing services under civilian control, and be interoperable with GPS and the Russian GLONASS.
Galileo’s FOC phase is managed and funded by the European Commission, with the European Space Agency delegated as the design and procurement agent on the commission’s behalf.
Arianespace Flight VS12 will be the company’s eighth mission this year, following the successful launches in 2015 of four heavy-lift Ariane 5s, two lightweight Vega vehicles, and one Soyuz.
Technicians donned spacesuit-like SCAPE (Self Contained Atmospheric Protective Ensemble) suits to fill each satellite with sufficient hydrazine fuel for their planned 12 years of operations in space, the European Space Agency describes in a news release. This fuel is needed for fine-tuning of their orbital paths following their launch, followed by routine orbital and attitude control over the course of their working lives.
Each Galileo satellite needs to keep its navigation antenna trained on Earth’s disc at all times, employing dedicated infrared Earth and Sun sensors for this purpose. This marked the first time Galileo had been fuelled within the Guiana Space Centre’s 3SB preparation building. Previously, the S5 fuelling building was dedicated to this purpose, but upgrades by Arianespace mean fuelling can now take place at the same location where they will subsequently be attached to their Fregat upper stage, streamlining the satellite preparation process. Completion of fuelling means the two satellites are essentially ready for launch — what needs to be accomplished now is to first attach the Galileos to their launch dispenser, then to fix this in turn to their Fregat.
The satellites plus Fregat will then be encapsulated within the launcher fairing, after which this ‘upper composite’ can then be attached to the other three stages of the Soyuz ST-B launcher. The latest Galileo launch campaign commenced at the end of July, with the arrival of the satellites in French Guiana on July 24. A “fit check” followed, to confirm the satellites as delivered in Kourou did indeed fit onto the dispenser that will first secure them in place during launch and then pyrotechnically eject them into their orbits once their target 23 222 km altitude medium-Earth orbit has been reached. This was followed by in-depth system checks and final settings of onboard navigation and data handling software parameters.
Two further Galileo satellites are still scheduled for launch by end of this year. One of these satellites is completing testing at ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, while the other one has already completed its testing and is awaiting transportation to Kourou in the second half of October.
In addition the first satellite of the following batch has arrived at ESTEC and is currently undergoing its thermal vacuum test. Another flight model will arrive at ESTEC by mid-September.
Lime Microsystems and Airbus Defence and Space, with funding from Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board), will jointly be developing robust GNSS products, according to a Lime Microsystems blog. Airbus D&S, using Lime’s Field Programmable RF (FPRF) transceiver technology, is developing a robust timing receiver that exploits signals from the new Galileo satellite navigation constellation.
A highly integrated Field Programmable RF (FPRF) solution based on Lime’s technology, and an innovative system implementation of the kind provided by Airbus D&S, will provide a high-performance GNSS product with the potential for integration with other wireless capabilities, the companies said.
“Lime FPRF transceiver matches our rigorous technical performance requirements and we are looking forward to be working alongside Lime in this strategic engagement,” said Mike Turner, Airbus D&S.
“We are delighted to be working with Airbus, supporting a complimentary technology that could impact variety of applications such as wireless infrastructure,” said Ebrahim Bushehri, CEO of Lime Microsystems.
The Canadian government will begin providing search-and-rescue repeaters for the U.S. Air Force’s GPS III satellites, reports Space News. The repeaters provided by Canada’s Medium Earth Orbit Search and Rescue (MEOSAR) satellite project will significantly reduce the time it takes to locate a distress signal.
Canada’s Department of National Defence will begin negotiations with the U.S. Air Force to install 24 repeaters on GPS III satellites, starting with the 11th GPS III satellite. Canada’s MEOSAR satellite project includes construction of three ground stations, to be built by 2020.
The MEOSAR satellite payload is being developed for GPS III satellites.
The Canadian government first announced the MEOSAR project in 2013, awarding Com Dev International of Cambridge, Ontario, an initial contract worth 4.7 million Canadian dollars for research and design work on the repeaters. Despite completion of that phase, Canada’s Department of National Defence put the project on hold, possibly for budgetary reasons.
A contract award for the MEOSAR repeaters is now expected to be announced next year.
A MEOSAR repeater will be able to detect signals from emergency beacons and retransmit the signals to receiver stations on the ground. The emergency messages can then be sent to appropriate authorities so that people in danger can be quickly located and rescued.
MEOSAR will provide a more capable system than COSPAS-SARSAT, an international satellite-based search and rescue distress alert detection system established by Canada, France, the former Soviet Union and the United States in 1979. It is credited with saving more than 33,000 lives since its inception. MEOSAR will reduce the time it takes to detect and locate a distress signal from an hour to around five minutes.
Com Dev began the development of its MEOSAR technology in 2008 under a cost-shared research and development project with the Canadian Space Agency. Canada’s National Search and Rescue Secretariat also later provided additional R&D support.
The search and rescue transponders were originally destined for Galileo, according to Space News, but stalled because Canada lacked a defense certificate to be able to supply the Galileo program.
A metal object that may be a large piece of a Galileo rocket has been found on a Florida beach. The object appeared to bear the markings of the European Union’s Galileo satellite program, reports the SunSentinel.
It was discovered Sunday behind the oceanfront Sun Tower Hotel & Suites in Fort Lauderdale.
The mattress-sized fragment attracted onlookers until late Sunday morning when it was tractored off the beach by a city cleanup crew and handed over to police. Police hauled the debris away and planned to hold it for inspection by Federal Aviation Administration officials on Monday, according to police Capt. Frank Sousa.
Several rockets have been launched from the French and European spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana, on the northeast coast of South America. The EU’s Galileo satellite navigation system now has eight satellites in orbit following the launch of the latest pair in March. How the debris ended up on the Fort Lauderdale beach is under investigation.
Weeks of testing simulated the airlessness and temperature extremes of orbital space, taking place at the ESTEC Test Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands during May 2015. (Photo: ESA)
News by the European Space Agency
Europe’s latest Galileo was unboxed at ESA’s technical centre in the Netherlands in May, bringing the total number of satellites at the site to four.
ESTEC in Noordwijk is the largest satellite test facility in Europe, with all the equipment needed to simulate every aspect of the launch and space environment under a single roof. It is an essential stop on the way to space for Europe’s Galileo satellites, built by OHB in Bremen, Germany, with navigation payloads from Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. in Guildford, UK.
The 12th Galileo arrived by lorry from Bremen on May 13, in a custom-built environmentally controlled container. The satellite will begin with a thermal vacuum test in a 4.5-meter-diameter stainless steel chamber, subjected to about five weeks of hard vacuum and the temperature extremes of space.
Galileo-11 recently completed the same trial before moving on to final system testing, including a compatibility run with the ground network.
Meanwhile, the ninth and tenth satellites are in storage at ESTEC, having passed their own checks. They will be flown to Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana in late July for launch by Soyuz in September, which will bring the total in orbit into double figures.
The 12th Galileo satellite, FOC FM-08, arrived at the ESTEC Test Centre on May 13. It was transported by lorry from Bremen in a protective air-conditioned container.
The first four Galileos, launched in 2011 and 2012, were in-orbit validation satellites, built by prime contractor Airbus Defence & Space. They confirmed that the overall system worked as planned, while also serving as the foundation of the full constellation to follow.
The follow-up Full Operational Capability satellites are now being launched regularly to increase the size of the constellation to the point where early Galileo services can begin next year.
European Partners. Galileo is a collaboration between ESA and the European Commission (EC). The validation phase was co-funded by ESA and the EC, while the full operational phase is funded by the EC. Under a delegation agreement, ESA acts as design and procurement agent on behalf of the commission.
MEDUSA sponsored a Think Tank May 19 in Tunis focused on EGNOS in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS).
Delegates from 10 countries met in Tunis May 19 for an “All-day-long Think Tank” organized by MEDUSA. The sixty participants represented Algeria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Egypt, Jordan, France, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and Slovak Republic.
Focused on the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) market, the event addressed the advantages of satellite navigation, and particularly of EGNOS and Galileo. ITS concerns the integration of information and communication technologies to create new applications and services for transport and mobility. ITS applies to all transport modes and is oriented to both passenger and freight transport. Satellite navigation plays an important role in ITS.
The MEDUSA Think Tank opened with a keynote speech by Ammar Habib of the Ministry of Transport of Tunisia, who reaffirmed the country’s interest in the development of ITS and in the cooperation with Europe in relation to the exploitation of the services offered by the European GNSS in the various transport domains.
The Euromed and European panelists gave a wide overview of existing and emerging applications in their countries, such as tracking and tracing of dangerous goods transportation, tracking special regulated fleets, emergency call, road tolling, urban traffic management, control of service fleets, and freight transit monitoring. They presented the existing technologies and value-added services that can be delivered through EGNOS today, and services that will become more robust thanks to Galileo in the future. It was recognized that the European GNSS, EGNOS and Galileo, can provide benefits to more than European countries and that, though primarily conceived for the aviation needs, EGNOS has interesting perspectives of utilization in ITS, and particularly in those applications requiring accurate and reliable positioning.
The participants from different sectors (policy makers, users, technology and commercial players, experts) shared their experiences and lessons learned. They also had the opportunity for networking, establishing relationships, and strengthening cooperation on GNSS and ITS.
Organized in combination with the Elgazala Innovation Days 2015, an international exhibition on information and communication technologies, the Think Tank is one of the technical assistance actions undertaken by MEDUSA and in the frame of the program of GEMCO (Galileo EuroMed Cooperation Office), the regional cooperation structure in Tunis set up and operated by MEDUSA.
About MEDUSA — MEDiterranean follow-Up for EGNOS Adoption
Coordinated by Telespazio, the MEDUSA project belongs to the Euromed GNSS program, part of the Euromed Transport framework. MEDUSA aids the Euromed countries in the operational introduction and the exploitation of the European GNSS (EGNOS/Galileo) in various applications, mainly in the transport sectors. MEDUSA runs a program of technical assistance actions, aimed at capacity building, development of enablers and regional cooperation on EGNOS/Galileo.
