Within ESA’s Maxwell EMC Facility, each Galileo satellite is switched on as if it were already operating in space. The test procedure is a check of the satellite’s electromagnetic compatibility; all its systems are run together to detect any harmful interference between them.
Once Maxwell’s main door is sealed, its metal walls form a Faraday Cage, screening out external electromagnetic signals. The anechoic foam pyramids covering its interior absorb internal signals – as well as sound – to prevent any reflection, mimicking the infinite void of space for satellite testing.
In the photo here, sheathed in multi-layer insulation, the 2.5 x 1.2 x 1.1-meter satellite’s main 1.4-m diameter antenna transmits L-band navigation signals. To its left is the hexagonal search and rescue antenna that will pick up distress signals and relay them to local emergency services, contributing to saving more than 2,000 lives annually.
The Face of Galileo: A Galileo satellite is tested in the Maxwell EMC Facility before heading for space. (Photo: ESA)
To the bottom right of the navigation antenna are a pair of infrared Earth sensors to keep the navigation permanently locked onto Earth by homing in on the contrast between the heat of Earth’s atmosphere and the cold of deep space.
Above them is the laser retro-reflector: lasers are shone up to this from International Laser Ranging Service stations to perform an independent check of the satellite’s orbital position down to an accuracy of less than a centimeter, as a backup of standard radio ranging.
Above that is the circular C-band antenna, which every 45 minutes or so receives the navigation messages from the Galileo ground segment. These signals incorporate corrections for slight clock errors, orbital drift or satellite malfunctions that user receivers can process as they perform positioning fixes, helping ensure Galileo delivers meter-scale positioning to users around the globe.
What resembles a white baton on the end of the satellite is its S-band antenna, employed to return “housekeeping” telemetry data to mission control on Earth and pick up telecommands to operate the satellite platform and payload – as well as performing the ranging used to estimate the satellite’s position in space.
The Maxwell EMC Facility is part of the ESTEC Test Centre in ESA’s technical heart in Noordwijk, the Netherlands – Europe’s largest satellite testing facility, which has flight-tested all but two of the 28 Galileo satellites already in orbit, and is doing the same for the next 10 satellites planned to join the constellation.
Telit has released the SE873K5 multi-constellation GNSS receiver in the L1 band. The SE873K5 simultaneously tracks and navigates all four GNSS constellations — GPS, Galileo, GLONASS and BeiDou — providing GNSS information over a UART, I2C or SPI interface serial port using the NMEA protocol.
Based on the AG3335 system-in-package from Airoha, the SE873K5 is the latest addition to Telit’s SE873 family of modules and the natural migration path from SE873 and SE873Q5.
The module is a 7mm x 7mm x 2.25mm QFN-like semiconductor package with embedded SPI flash, RTC and TCXO. With its compact size, the latest generation chipset and the advanced power modes, the SE873K5 has the benefits of low cost, small form factor and good electrical and thermal performance — suitable for wearables, fleet tracking, drones and more.
The SE873K5 low-power processing core delivers customizable power-saving modes. It optimizes current draw at module wake-up by supporting both local- and server-based assisted GNSS (A-GNSS) for improved time to first fix, while satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) corrections from WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS or GAGAN increase positioning accuracy.
The internal flash memory allows firmware updates and customization, as well as ephemeris predictions storage.
The tests will assess whether UKSBAS can develop into a full operational capability to support safety-critical applications
Artist’s impression of an Inmarsat-3 satellite. (Image: Inmarsat)
An Inmarsat-led team of companies in the United Kingdom has begun broadcasting a satellite navigation signal as part of a program to explore the creation of a sovereign national capability in resilient positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) for the aviation and maritime sectors.
The signal, being broadcast in coordination with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Union Space Programme Agency (EUSPA), is now stable and operational, enabling ongoing testing and validation by industry, regulators and users.
Inmarsat, a satellite communications company, alongside British partners Goonhilly Earth Station and GMV NSL, is delivering the UK Space Agency-funded tests with the European Space Agency via ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Program (NAVISP).
The UK Space-Based Augmentation System (UKSBAS) generates an overlay test signal to the U.S. GPS, compliant with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards, to enable assessment of more precise, resilient and high-integrity navigation for maritime and aviation users in UK waters and airspace. It increases accuracy in positioning to a few centimeters of accuracy rather than the few meters provided by standard GPS.
This is a similar system to that already under evaluation in Australia and New Zealand, supported by Inmarsat.
Since leaving the European Union, the UK is not part of the Galileo satnav system and cannot use the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) safety of life (SOL) services, which enable the use of GPS for airport approach and landing operations for aircraft. The UK ceased to have access to EGNOS on June 25, 2021.
By repurposing the SBAS transponder on Inmarsat’s I-3 F5 satellite in geostationary orbit at 54° west, the UKSBAS signal enables testing of this potential alternative system. Built by Inmarsat’s Athena partner Lockheed Martin and launched in 1998, I-3 F5 covers the UK as part of its Atlantic Ocean region service overlay. This makes it a suitable candidate to participate in this test and demonstrates the commitment to sustainability of Inmarsat with a satellite that has already served the equivalent of several low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite life cycles.
“The Inmarsat team is inspired by delivering solutions to new problems through technology and innovation,” said Todd McDonell, president, Global Government at Inmarsat. “Repurposing a transponder on a long-serving satellite to deliver a new capability to the UK, potentially a vital and enduring one, certainly lives up to that core Inmarsat ethos. Working with our fellow British companies at Goonhilly and GMVNSL to deliver such a capability for the country is very rewarding, and we look forward to reporting on the results.”
The tests will assess whether UKSBAS can develop into a full operational capability to support safety-critical applications such as airport approach and landing operations or navigating ships through narrow channels, especially at night and in poor weather conditions.
Goonhilly provides the signal uplink for the system from Cornwall; software from Nottingham-based GMVNSL generates the necessary navigational data.
“The UK’s thriving space sector is developing at pace, and British-led innovations like this have the potential to deliver crucial navigation services for our aviation and maritime sectors.” said Transport Minister Robert Courts. “That’s why this government is investing millions in new technologies to make our transport network even safer while boosting high-skilled job opportunities across the nation.”
UKSBAS is helping to regenerate UK strategic capabilities in this domain. The establishment of this new national platform creates the opportunity to evaluate high-integrity, resilient and precise navigation across the country, in its airspace and within surrounding waters. The project may be crucial for UK users who need accurate, high-integrity navigation capabilities to enable their operations, initially covering aviation and maritime operations but with potential extension into rail and road applications.
“Congratulations to Inmarsat, Goonhilly and GMVNSL on this impressive achievement,” said Paul Bate, CEO of the UK Space Agency. “In recent years, the UK Space Agency has invested in the development of UK expertise in positioning, navigation and timing (PNT), and the government’s commitment to strengthening PNT resilience is set out in both the National Space Strategy and Integrated Review, given its importance to our critical national infrastructure and economy. “This project is a great example of the innovation found throughout the UK space sector and demonstrates how we can work effectively with the European Space Agency to strengthen our national space capabilities.”
The NAVCEN website upgrade and redesign is now live.
“This is an exciting moment for our team,” said Stephanie Southwick, NAVCEN web team. “Thank you again for your patience as we move forth with this transition to improve user experience and to provide the public with timely and reliable maritime safety information.”
As a reminder, while the primary URL will stay the same, all sub-URLs have changed with the transition. Use of any bookmarked legacy URLs will result in broken links, including PDFs and URLs used in automatic downloading of data and products. “We appreciate your patience in re-bookmarking your favorite pages when we update the site,” Southwick said.
The NAVCEN outreach team will work with users to ensure transition to using the redesigned site is as seamless as possible. Communicate with the team at[email protected] with questions or to request additional information.
For more information on the changes, visit this page.
Collaboration powers GPS and Galileo navigation experiment
By Danny Baird NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
As the Artemis missions journey to the Moon and NASA plans for the long voyage to Mars, new navigation capabilities will be key to science, discovery and human exploration.
Through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas, will deliver an experimental payload to the Moon’s Mare Crisium basin. NASA’s Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) payload will test a powerful new lunar navigation capability using Earth’s GNSS signals at the Moon for the first time.
“In this case, we are pushing the envelope of what GNSS was intended to do — that is, expanding the reach of systems built to provide services to terrestrial, aviation, and maritime users to also include the fast growing space sector,” said J.J. Miller, deputy director of Policy and Strategic Communications for NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program. “This will vastly improve the precision and resilience of what was available during the Apollo missions, and allow for more flexible equipage and operational scenarios.”
LuGRE — developed in partnership with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) – will receive signals from both GPS and Galileo, and use them to calculate the first-ever GNSS location fixes in transit to the Moon and on the lunar surface.
“Space missions close to Earth have long relied on GNSS for their navigation and timekeeping,” said Joel Parker, LuGRE principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “In recent years, NASA and the international community have pushed the boundaries of what was considered possible by using these techniques in the Space Service Volume and beyond.”
This graphic details the different areas of GNSS coverage. (Image: NASA/Danny Baird)
Missions in the GNSS Space Service Volume — from about 1,800 miles to 22,000 miles in altitude — receive signals that spill past Earth’s edge from GNSS satellites on the opposite side of the planet. The first Space Service Volume experiments occurred around the dawn of the new millennium. Since then, numerous missions in the Space Service Volume have reliably used GNSS to navigate.
In 2016, the NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) employed GPS operationally at a record-breaking 43,500 miles from Earth. Then, in 2019, MMS broke its own record by fixing its location with GPS at 116,300 miles from Earth — nearly halfway to the Moon.
At these extreme altitudes, missions need extremely sensitive GNSS receivers. The LuGRE mission will use a specialized weak-signal receiver developed by Qascom, an Italian company specializing in space cybersecurity and satellite navigation security solutions, and funded by ASI.
LuGRE teams are now testing the payload in preparation to deliver it for integration onto the Firefly “Blue Ghost” lander in November of this year. Launch is slated for no earlier than 2024 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
During the multi-week flight to the Moon, LuGRE will collect GNSS signals and perform navigation experiments at different altitudes and in lunar orbit. After landing, LuGRE will deploy its antenna and begin 12 days of data collection, with the potential for extended mission operations. NASA and ASI will process and analyze data downlinked to Earth, and then share results publicly.
“LuGRE is the latest effort in a long line of missions designed to expand high-altitude GNSS capabilities,” said Fabio Dovis, LuGRE co-principal investigator, ASI. “We’ve developed a cutting-edge experiment that will serve as the foundation for operational GNSS systems at the Moon.”
The LuGRE mission seeks to spark further development of GNSS-based navigation capabilities near and on the Moon, even as NASA plans to begin using high-altitude GNSS operationally for future lunar missions. NASA and ASI will bring the results of this work forward to the space community through the International Committee on GNSS, a United Nations forum focused on ensuring the interoperability of GNSS signals. These capabilities are also a key stepping stone towards building LunaNet, an architecture that will unify cooperative networks into seamless lunar communications and navigation services.
Artistic rendering of LuGRE and the GNSS constellations. In reality, the Earth-based GNSS constellations take up less than 10 degrees in the sky, as seen from the Moon. (Image: NASA/Dave Ryan)
“The lunar deliveries we’re sourcing from commercial vendors are providing a number of innovative new technologies and opportunities to conduct experiments with affordable access to the lunar surface,” said Jay Jenkins, Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program executive. “LuGRE is one example of the progress that government and industry can make when united in their exploration objectives.”
Developing new uses of GNSS for emerging space operations is a priority for the SCaN program at NASA headquarters, as the lead organization responsible for implementing guidance from Space Policy Directive-7, which directs NASA to develop requirements for GPS support of space operations and science in higher orbits and beyond into cislunar space.
The Pozyx Platform is an asset tracking and identification solution for seamless indoor and outdoor tracking, based on the omlox hub and supporting multiple location technologies.
The omlox hub is an open standard for real-time location systems (RTLS) that combines location data from GPS, ultra-wideband, 5G, radio-frequency identification, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
The Pozyx Platform offers a seamless indoor/outdoor transition with zoom-in from a worldwide map to a detailed indoor map, showing highly accurate locations up to 10 cm. It is designed for smart manufacturing, providing a supply-chain solution that supports Industry 4.0.
It tracks and identifies any asset, providing real-time data to facilitate warehouse and inventory control, keep track of critical tools, and slash lost asset costs.
Galileo High Accuracy Service one step closer to initial launch
The EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) has published the first Galileo High Accuracy Service Signal in Space Interface Control Document (HAS SIS ICD). The document can be downloaded here.
The HAS SIS ICD was published by EUSPA together with the European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA).
By providing free-of-charge, high-accuracy precise point positioning (PPP) corrections through both the Galileo signal (E6-B) and via the internet, the HAS will offer users improved positioning performance with an accuracy of less than two decimeters.
“Galileo will be the first GNSS constellation capable of providing a high-accuracy service directly through the signal in space,” explained Guerric Pont, Galileo Services, EUSPA program manager. “This is unique in that, typically, high-accuracy services are based on accurate satellite and atmospheric data provided from a third party, but not directly from the GNSS.”
According to Pont, high-accuracy services are experiencing a massive boost in interest, thanks in large part to new capabilities of GNSS receivers and the rapid emergence of new applications that require accurate location data.
“Currently, high accuracy is primarily used in such professional applications as surveying, precision agriculture and civil engineering, among others,” he said. “However, new and emerging applications, including autonomous driving, unmanned vehicles, robotics and a range of location-based services, will all welcome high accuracy.”
Pont also notes that, when used in synergy with Copernicus, the Galileo HAS will open up market possibilities and help design new services.
An ongoing process
In 2021, EUSPA, in coordination with the European Commission and ESA, published an Information Note on the Galileo HAS. The note provided an overview of the service’s main characteristics, along with information on such key features as service levels, targeted performance and markets, and a roadmap for implementation.
This was followed by a call for Expression of Interest for High Accuracy Service Testing, which invited external stakeholders to participate in a testing campaign of the Galileo HAS Signal in Space broadcasting. The goal of the campaign was to collect relevant feedback, not only on the HAS SIS ICD structure and implementation at the receiver level, but also on service-related aspects and specifications.
“The Galileo program has been performing a long set of HAS testing activities since 2019, which cumulated in the first-ever HAS signal broadcast in May 2021,” said Javier de Blas, EUSPA Commercial and HAS manager. “Based on the feedback gained during the joint efforts conducted by EUSPA, the European Commission and ESA, with the key support of European aerospace industry during the testing phase, we are now able to publish the first Galileo High Accuracy Service Signal in Space Interface Control Document.”
Following the publication of this HAS SIS ICD, the Galileo Program will continue deployment and service validation of HAS over the next months, in view of an operational declaration of HAS initial service, or HAS Phase 1, by the end of 2022. This will enable development of products in parallel to the gradual entry into full operational service in the next few years.
The fifth GPS III satellite is now set healthy for initial operational use, according to the U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center (NAVCEN). GPS III 05 (SVN-78/PRN-11) was launched June 17, 2021, from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
Constellation Changes
The U.S. Space Force Second Space Operations Squadron (2 SOPS) indicates that GPSIII 05 replaced SVN-61/PRN-28 in the D plane at slot D1.
SVN-61 is being rephased to optimize its position in the D plane, and is expected to complete its journey on or about July 14.
SVN-44/PRN-28 was moved to GLAN 31.64 to optimize its position within B plane.
GPS III space vehicle 05 (GPS III-SV05) launched in June 2021 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle. (Photo: SpaceX)
We all need to be careful that the numbers we are throwing around to support our case aren’t really undermining it.
Dana Goward, President, Resilient PNT Foundation
Over the last several weeks, I have repeatedly heard government officials and others talking about the value of GPS to the U.S. economy.
In each case they cited a 2019 report sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It determined that, if GPS services were to go away, the U.S. economy would lose one billion dollars a day.
A billion dollars is a lot of money.
Yet the U.S. annual gross domestic product is more than $22 trillion a year. That’s more than $60B a day. One billion dollars is less than 1.7%.
That just doesn’t seem right.
A member of the White House’s National Security Council said “GPS is still a single point of failure” for America. That sounds like a pretty big hit to the economy. Not to mention our national security.
GPS signals are critical for networks, transportation, communications, power grid operations, first responders…virtually every critical infrastructure. If they go away, the U.S. GDP will certainly suffer much more loss than 1.7%. The economy would likely go from growing to shrinking and continue that way for quite a while.
I don’t know exactly how much the U.S. will suffer if GPS suddenly goes away, but I am sure it will be a lot. Texas alone lost an estimated $195 billion with at least 57 dead as a result of its February 2021 week-long power crisis. Although not caused by a GPS outage, the number gives us real-world benchmarks for the impacts of a major tech infrastructure failure.
If GPS fails, there will certainly be more accidents while people across the nation get used to it not being available. First responders will have a much harder time getting places and using land mobile radios. All kinds of essential services will be disrupted. More people will die than would have been the case otherwise.
In December 2021, a member of the White House’s National Security Council said “GPS is still a single point of failure” for America. That sounds like a pretty big hit to the economy. Not to mention our national security.
The authors of the NIST-sponsored study were undoubtedly diligent. But they were faced with an impossible task – to quantify the unquantifiable. And like any analysis, they were limited in what they could do by the available time, money, and hard data. They were asked for a number. They delivered one that could be easily supported.
A billion dollars is a lot of money. It might be a fairly impressive sound bite for general audiences.
Government budget analysts and policy makers, though, are accustomed to dealing with dollars in the hundreds of billions and trillions. A billion a day, while not chump change, is not a major issue.
Protecting GPS and ensuring the nation has resilient positioning, navigation and timing services are major issues.
We all need to be careful that the numbers we are throwing around to support our case aren’t really undermining it.
Dana A. Goward is president of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation.
NPIC is key to a location-enabled Australia. (Image: Geoscience Australia)
Geoscience Australia is undertaking an assessment of the economic impact of the National Positioning Infrastructure Capability (NPIC) program.
The program provides free and open access to multi-GNSS observation streams from Australia’s network of continuously operating reference stations (CORS).
Users can connect to these data and product streams directly from Geoscience Australia or via a commercial positioning-service provider. The CORS network has been designed to support a national positioning capability that provides better than 5-cm accurate positioning solutions in areas with access to mobile-phone coverage (delivery via the internet).
Geoscience Australia has engaged ACIL Allen to conduct a web-based survey for stakeholders with interest in this program to assist with data gathering for the economic assessment.
The survey takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete. There is an additional optional component for service providers that may take an additional 15 minutes.
It can be completed in stages, if necessary, with a facility to save responses. It will remain open until June 28 (extended from May 25).
Questions can be directed to Alan Smart (project director) at 0404 822 312 or Nanumi Starke (ACIL Allen) at 0466 636 345.
After a challenging Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) and testing campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic, Galileo satellite “Nikolina” (GSAT0223) entered service on May 5. The satellite will reinforce the performance and robustness of the Galileo satellite.
GSAT0223 was launched Dec. 5, 2021 with Galileo launch L11 after the usual design, acceptance, validation, launch and early orbit preparation and operations phases.
This was the first Early Orbit Operations phase conducted directly from the operational center in Germany, under the responsibility of EUSPA.
GSAT0223 and its launch companion GSAT0224 (Shriya) are the first pair of the third batch of Galileo First Generation satellites to reach space. GSAT0223 will fill the last empty slot in Galileo’s orbital plane B.
Shriya will soon complete its in-orbit validation and will then join the operational constellation. Ten additional satellites of the same batch are continuing assembly, acceptance and launch preparations.
As PNT becomes critical to more economic activities, any disruption in availability, reliability, resilience and integrity would weaken the critical infrastructure that sustains national security, business operations and public safety, according to experts speaking at the Geospatial World Forum.
This growing dependency on PNT services — and the potentially high economic cost of vulnerabilities — underscores how vital GPS and GNSS systems are to the global economy and national security of countries worldwide, the experts said. Resilient PNT systems are necessary to combat GPS/GNSS outages.
Robert Cardillo (Photo: GWF)
Building resilience into these systems will require multiple technologies ranging from network time-transfer services to terrestrial wireless infrastructure and low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites.
The Geospatial World Forum opened in Amsterdam on May 10. The second plenary of the day focused on the value of PNT in the global economy. Geospatial World is a global think tank working towards raising awareness around the use of geospatial data and technologies among governments and policymakers, businesses, and the public at large.
Robert Cardillo, president of The Cardillo Group and former director of the U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), headed the panel of experts.
“Our existence on this planet has been shaped by our individual and collective awareness of place and our confidence to be able to move securely and efficiently from one place to another, all within that common framework of position, navigation and timing, or PNT,” he said.
“The smartphone is a wonderful example of how far PNT has been integrated into our lives,” said Trimble founder Charlie Trimble. He laid down three basic phases involved in leading PNT to its place in the world economy.
“The path from the dawn of space age to the smartphone was anything but obvious or straightforward,” Trimble said. “First, Sputnik led to the global navigation systems. Second, the Shuttle disaster led us to the realization that the satellite system was an information utility. And now, the integration of PNT into the mobile and immobile internet is changing our world.”
From left: Charlie Trimble, Martin Sweeting, Rodrigo da Costa and Gillian Smith. (Photo: GWF)
“Our first contract was with ESA (European Space Agency) to look at the feasibility of using a navigation and timing satellite using small-satellite techniques, which in 1985 was considered a wacky idea,” recounted Martin Sweeting, executive chairman of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. “At ESA, we have embarked on a project called Hydro GNSS, which uses Surrey’s GNSS reflectometry to address several climate related issues, be it water detection or biomass, etc. This doesn’t stop here; we are looking at the lunar economy. PNT has indeed a very bright future, not just on Earth but also looking through this decade into the use of PNT on the lunar surface.”
Rodrigo da Costa
“New things are happening, particularly in the area of governmental satellite communications, space situational awareness and others, which are benefitting citizens every day,” said Rodrigo da Costa, executive director, EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA). “Galileo, EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service), Copernicus and GOVSATCOM programs are key areas of EU space activities. All these programs are massive investments and in the end, the result comes from their utilization in the different areas of our economy and daily life.”
“Just in the United States alone, GPS is approaching USD 1 trillion in terms of economic impact and is doubling every 2-3 years. But it is a single point of failure. This highlights the need for resilient PNT,” said Gillian Smith, vice president of marketing, NextNav. “We believe that our needs have evolved beyond technology that was really created in the ’60s. We need increased accuracy and availability in the urban environments in particular.
“I think many of you have experienced it if you’ve tried to use it in any major city,” Smith said. “That blue dot is going to bounce off of buildings and not be very accurate. We need indoor tracking and mapping. We need altitude data so that you know what floor you’re on when you’re thinking about accurate location. We also need to increase resilience and redundancy. That’s going to give us all increased security as well.”
The Value of GPS
GPS jamming and interference is a grave issue that has come under the spotlight particularly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to Geospatial World.
In 2019, a Washington, D.C., think tank documented more than 10,000 cases of GPS interference (jamming and spoofing) in the previous five years from Russia. By 2021, these had become increasingly sophisticated. In a peculiar case, the crew onboard NATO ships in Odessa saw their position being given as Crimea.
In the past six months, even before the war on Ukraine began, there were reports of GPS jamming in and around that region. In March, the EU Aviation Safety Agency had issued warnings of GNSS spoofing and jamming for flights over Europe, in particular around countries neighboring Ukraine and Russia.
Globally, the economic impact of GPS/GNSS disruption is difficult to state. The potential economic consequences of failing to sufficiently protect sources of PNT are enormous, with estimates ranging from millions to billions of dollars depending on the type, length, severity and geographic scope of the disruption.
Furthermore, the impact of a GPS/GNSS outage extends beyond basic economics and could result in risk to life. Emergency services, distress beacons and telecommunications networks all rely on PNT services — any disruption could cause serious consequences.
A 2019 report sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology estimated that the loss of GPS would cost the U.S. economy USD 1 billion a day.
A 2017 study in the United Kingdom estimated a five-day GNSS disruption would lead to an economic impact of GBP 5.2 billion (USD 7.2 billion), with road, maritime and emergency service impacts accounting for 88 percent of the cost.
