GPS World

Tag: European Space Agency

  • Galileo provides healthy signals 97.33 percent of the time

    Galileo provides healthy signals 97.33 percent of the time

    Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system has undergone its first performance report since it started work at the end of last year, and it passed with flying colors, said the European Space Agency.

    The European GNSS Agency, GSA, through its GNSS Service Centre, has published the first of its regular quarterly performance reports on Galileo. This European GNSS (Galileo) Initial Services Open Service report, now available online, covers the first three months of 2017 and documents the good performance of Galileo Initial Services to date.

    The report shows the 11 satellites then operating in the Galileo constellation were able to provide healthy signals 97.33 percent of the time on a per satellite basis, with a ranging accuracy better than 1.07 m and disseminating global UTC time within its signal to within 30 billionths of a second on a 95 percentile monthly basis.

    “Galileo Initial Services were declared by the European Commission on 15 December 2016,” said Joerg Hahn of ESA’s Galileo System Office.

    “It was thanks to the tremendous effort of ESA’s Galileo team working closely together with colleagues from the commission and GSA that this milestone could be achieved: the key pillars for reaching are the currently deployed Galileo satellites in combination with the global Galileo ground segment infrastructure, defined and implemented by the ESA team with their respective industry partners.”

    The Initial Service performance levels achieved by the system are monitored using two complementary monitoring platforms: the Time and Geodetic Validation Facility, an independent precision time-measuring system accurate to a billionth of a second — using an ensemble of atomic clocks located at ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands — and the Galileo System Evaluation Equipment, GALSEE, based in Rome.

    The steadily declining Signal in Space Ranging Error (SISE) of the Galileo constellation from 2014 to the present.

    In the future, the independent monitoring of the services will be carried out by GSA’s Galileo Reference Centre, currently taking shape beside ESTEC in Noordwijk. The results for the first quarter of 2017 show the measured performances are generally far better than the minimum performance levels identified in the Service Definition Documents.

    “Looking back over the ranging accuracy of the Galileo constellation from the time of the very first positioning fix in 2014 to the present, the overall performance trend for the Open Service is very positive,” Joerg said.

    “It has reached values of less than 1 m in recent months, being already competitive with other satellite navigation systems.

    “The high-quality ranging service enables user level positioning with a typical accuracy of around 3 m on the ground and 5 m in altitude during periods when four satellites are visible. With the limited infrastructure so far deployed, current horizontal position fixes can be achieved during more than 80 percent of the time with accuracies better than 10 meters.

    “This user level performance is expected to improve with the launch of more satellites making the provided Galileo services more accurate, more available and more robust for end users.”

  • Galileo signal team nominated for invention award

    Galileo signal team nominated for invention award

    José Ángel Ávila Rodríguez (left)) and Laurent Lestarquit holding a satellite model. (Credit: ESA)

    The engineering team behind the signal technology underpinning Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system has reached the final of this year’s European Inventor Award, run by the European Patent Office, reported the European Space Agency.

    The team is led by Spanish engineer José Ángel Ávila Rodríguez — now part of ESA’s Galileo team — and his French colleague Laurent Lestarquit from France’s CNES space agency.

    The team also includes German Günter Hein, formerly head of the department studying the evolution of EGNOS and Galileo for ESA, as well as Belgian Engineer Lionel Ries, now in ESA’s technical directorate, as well as French CNES engineer Jean-Luc Issler.

    The engineers, who had previously worked together as members of the multinational Galileo Signal Task Force, came up with a pair of innovative signal modulation techniques to pack multiple Galileo signals together, simultaneously serving different sets of users while boosting signal performance and robustness. Both innovations have been adopted by Galileo and are in use today.

    The first technique, called Alternative Binary Offset Carrier modulation — AltBOC — combines four signals into one large one, resulting in the widest bandwidth navigation signal ever transmitted. Two of these signals are sitting on the one carrier, namely E5a, while the other two are on E5b.

    “AltBOC is a way of transmitting four components in a very wide bandwidth signal, using a single radio frequency chain on the satellite in an intelligent way, where originally two chains would have been needed to transmit in two separate frequency bands (E5a and E5b),” explains José Ángel, now ESA’s global navigation satellite system evolution signal and security principal engineer for Galileo.

    “The result is a frequency-rich signal that fundamentally improves positioning performance and robustness.

    “AltBOC is interoperable with GPS in E5a/L5 and allows receiver manufacturers to process it as one very large signal – extending over the whole E5a and E5b range – or as two separate signals, one at each frequency carrier (E5a or E5b).

    “AltBOC serves open service users in general. Moreover, when used in its full performance mode (E5a+E5b), it also facilitates geodetic and precision scientific applications such as gradual tectonic motion, or the use of accurate positioning on Earth — including proposed ‘reflectometry’ missions to make altimetry measurements from satnav signals reflected from Earth’s surface.

    “But the application of AltBOC could go beyond the current use by providing accurate positioning to satellites in space thanks to its unique bandwidth characteristics.”

  • Upgrades to monitoring stations support EGNOS

    Upgrades to monitoring stations support EGNOS

    Upgrades to the monitoring stations underpinning Europe’s EGNOS satnav augmentation system will support its evolution, said the European Space Agency.

    The current 40 Ranging and Integrity Monitoring Stations (RIMS) sites across Europe and beyond are the bedrock of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), supplying highly accurate and robust satnav information that can be relied on for safety-critical purposes.

    Thales EGNOS V3 RIMS rack.

    Once a second, these stations gather raw satnav data to transmit information on signal quality and range measurements to the GPS satellites, allowing EGNOS to identify and remove any error in the signals.

    The resulting corrections are then passed to users via a trio of geostationary satellites, delivering a several-fold increase in precision plus “integrity” — a guarantee of navigation service — for safety-of-life applications.

    The result is that the EGNOS-augmented signals are guaranteed to meet the extremely high performance standards set out by the International Civil Aviation Organisation standard, adapted for Europe by Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation.

    The signals from space can therefore be relied on routinely for safety-critical tasks, such as vertically guiding aircraft during landing approaches.

    “These current RIMS V2 stations have some inherent limitations, which we’ve sought to tackle in this upgraded V3 design,” said Didier Flament, ESA’s EGNOS programme manager.

    Airbus EGNOS V3 RIMS rack.

    “For instance, our current stations work only with GPS frequencies L1/L2 P(Y), while the future post-2020 EGNOS system will be operating on a multi-constellation basis, additionally employing modernized GPS signals, notably on both the L2 (L2C) and L5 frequency bands, as well as other signals from Galileo, on the similar E1 and E5 frequency bands.

    “Our experience working with RIMS has emphasized the significance on performance of factors such as signal scintillation — caused by the ever-changing ionosphere, the electrically active layer of the upper atmosphere — as well as other environmental threats such as interference and multipath signal reflection.

    “So this upgraded design increased robustness to these factors, based on more stringent development and operating standards, along with innovative radio-frequency environment monitoring.

    “It also includes upgraded receiver technology to accurately monitor potential GPS and Galileo signal distortion — ‘evil waveform’ signal anomalies — in full compliance with international standards.”

    The RIMS V3 stations will be based in the same or similar secure location as today’s stations — typically airports or space-based telecommunication sites.

    Dual tracking antenna concept incorporated in EGNOS V3 RIMS design.

    The individual RIMS antennas themselves can be relatively compact, about 50 cm high, with links to receiver and computing equipment.

    Most of the RIMS V2 station antennas are currently surrounded by dedicated protection structures that limit the impact of interference and multipath local effects.

  • ESA: Space debris enters ‘more feared exponential trend’

    ESA: Space debris enters ‘more feared exponential trend’

    Space Debris: Artist’s impression based on density data, shown at an exaggerated size to make objects visible. Image: ESA
    Space Debris: Artist’s impression based on density data, shown at an exaggerated size to make objects visible.
    Image: ESA

    In April, the European Space Agency (ESA) hosted the 7th European Conference on Space Debris at ESA’s Satellite Control Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. There, international experts discussed ways to head off the threat of space junk.

    ESA estimates there are roughly 5,000 objects larger than 1 meter, 20,000 objects over 10 centimeters and 750,000 “flying bullets” of around one centimeter.

    Risks of a collision are statistically remote, but “The growth in the number of fragments has deviated from the linear trend in the past and has entered into the more feared exponential trend,” warns Holger Krag, in charge of ESA’s space debris office.

    Many of the objects are traveling at enormous speed, up to 56,000 kilometers per hour, giving them the potential explosive force of a hand grenade on impact, said ESA experts.

    In the U.S., more than 16,000 objects are tracked and cataloged daily by crews in the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Only 1,100 of the tracked items are functional spacecraft, including GPS satellites.

    Dealing with existing debris will call for innovative solutions — the purpose of the four-day summit, held every four years since 1993.

    “It’s clear to us that the issue of space debris is serious,” Jan Woerner, ESA chief, told the conference. “No country can stand or act alone.”

  • Galileo clock anomalies under investigation

    Galileo clock anomalies under investigation

    The European Space Agency (ESA) issued a press release addressing the Galileo clock failures reported Jan. 18. GPS World Innovation editor Richard Langley provided the following summary of the satellites and clocks involved, based on information we have received to date.

    • 5 satellites affected: 3 IOVs, 2 FOCs
    • Total of 10 failures; 1 fixed; so 9 continuing failures
    • 5 masers on IOV satellites
    • 2 masers on FOC satellites but 1 of these fixed
    • 3 rubidiums on FOC satellites
    • No satellite currently has fewer than 2 working clocks

    The ESA press release provides additional details on the failures and actions being taken to address the problem.

    Press Release from the European Space Agency

    As first reported November 2016, anomalies have been noted in the atomic clocks serving Europe’s Galileo satellites.

    Anomalies have occurred on five out of 18 Galileo satellites in orbit, although all satellites continue to operate well and the provision of Galileo Initial Services has not been affected.

    Highly accurate timing is core to satellite navigation. Each Galileo carries four atomic clocks to ensure strong, quadruple redundancy of the timing subsystem: two Rubidium Atomic Frequency Standard (RAFS) clocks and two Passive Hydrogen Maser (PHM) clocks.

    The current Galileo constellation consists of 18 satellites in orbit, adding up to a total of 36 RAFS clocks and 36 PHM clocks.

    Rubidium atomic clock, or RAF.
    Rubidium atomic clock, or RAF.

    RAFS clocks

    In recent months, a total of three RAFS clocks unexpectedly failed on Galileo satellites — all on Full Operational Capability (FOC) satellites, the latest Galileo model. These failures all seem to have a consistent signature, linked to probable short circuits, and possibly a particular test procedure performed on the ground, with investigations continuing to identify a root cause.

    No RAFS clock failures have occurred aboard the four Galileo In Orbit Validation (IOV) satellites, the original Galileo model. In addition the RAFS clock on ESA’s very first test navigation satellite, GIOVE-A launched in 2005, has been checked, and was reactivated successfully.

    Continuing investigations on the ground have identified potential weaknesses in the RAFS clock design, but no root cause has yet been yet established.

    PHM Clocks

    Passive hydrogen maser atomic clock of the type flown on Galileo, accurate to one second in three million years. (Photo: ESA)
    Passive hydrogen maser atomic clock of the type flown on Galileo, accurate to one second in three million years. (Photo: ESA)

    In the past two years, there have been five PHM clock failures on the IOV satellites and one PHM failure on the FOC satellites.

    These failures are better understood, linked to two apparent causes. One is a low margin on a particular parameter that leads, on some units, to a failure. The second is related to the fact that when some healthy PHM clocks are turned off for long periods, they do not restart because of a change in clock characteristics in orbit. To date, two PHM clocks have failed owing to the first mechanism, and four to the second.

    Corrective Actions

    For the remaining 33 RAFS clocks in orbit, the risk of failure is believed to be lower owing to different testing procedures on the ground before launch. In addition, new operational measures have been put in place to further mitigate the risk. All these measures have no effect on Galileo’s overall performance.

    While investigations by ESA and its industrial partners are continuing, there is consensus that some refurbishment is required on the remaining RAFS clocks still to be launched on the eight Galileo satellites being constructed or tested, and awaiting launch.

    For the remaining 30 PHM clocks working in orbit, operational procedures are being studied to significantly reduce the risk of future failure. These measures are being validated, ahead of their planned introduction in a few weeks.

    Looking Forward

    Overall, three out of four IOV satellites have experienced clock anomalies, and two out of 14 FOC satellites.

    As ESA Director General Jan Woerner commented during his Jan. 18 press briefing, no individual Galileo satellite has experienced more than two clock failures, so the robust quadruple redundancy designed into the system means all 18 members of the constellation remain operational. This includes one satellite that supports only the Open Service for mass-market applications, and two satellites in elliptical orbits that are nevertheless expected to be reintegrated into the full constellation for use from these orbits.

    Similarly, Galileo’s Initial Services, which began on Dec. 16, have been unaffected by these anomalies.

    The impact of RAFS and PHM clock refurbishment on Galileo’s launch schedule is under study, but ESA is confident that the clock issues will be resolved and remains committed to launch the next four Galileo FOC satellites before the end of this year.

    Director General Press Briefing

    January 18, 2017

    Clock problems are discussed at about the 12-minute mark, and in the Q&A portion started at the 52-minute mark.

  • International GNSS summer school goes to Norway

    The University of the Bundeswehr Muenchen and the Norwegian Space Centre are organizing the International Summer School on Global Satellite Navigation Systems 2017.

    esa-jrc-summer-school-w
    Longyearbyen, Norway.

    This year the Summer School will be held at Longyearbyen, Svalbard – Spitsbergen, Norway, Sept. 4-15. Lectures start the morning of Sept. 5 and end Sept. 14 following dinner.

    The Summer School is open to graduate students, Ph.D. candidates, early-state researcher and young professionals seeking to broaden their knowledge.

    Svalbard is an Arctic wilderness series of islands comprising the northernmost part of the Norwegian territories. It is mostly uninhabited, with only about 3,000 people. Longyearbyen, however, is a living community with an airport, a university, a hospital, schools, shops, restaurants, pubs, hotels, and the world’s largest commercial ground station.

    The summer school will provide key information, fresh ideas, basics, innovative approaches and practical advice on such topics as:

    • Basics of satellite navigation
    • Ionospheric and tropospheric effects on GNSS
    • Carrier-phase positioning
    • GNSS RF link performance
    • GNSS signals
    • GNSS receivers
    • Leadership and team effectiveness
    • GNSS threats and countermeasures
    • Navigation in GNSS denied environments
    • Cyber safety for civilian navigation
    • Become a GNSS entrepreneur
    • Location data and raw measurements in Android
    • IPR and patents in GNSS
    • Liability issues in GNSS
    • Railway high-integrity navigation overlay system (RHINOS)
    • Multi-frequency multi-system GNSS
    • Evolution of GNSS, in particular of the Galileo system
    • Satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) and receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM, ARAIM)
    • ECSS standards (phases, reviews, documentation, etc.)
    • GNSS space service volume and deep space navigation

    The summer school will be held in cooperation with the European Space Agency and the Joint Research Centre, as well as, ISAE Supaero, Stanford University and TU Graz.

    Learn more at the school website.

  • GNSS CEOs see bright future, alternative PNT promises well

    It has been a good year for all global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), as the chief executives of each system testify here. Alternative positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) also thrives. In this roundup of the latest highlights from the past year and forecasts for the future, 2017 augurs very well indeed! Let’s look at the newest alternative-PNT offerings first, followed by forecasts from the chief executive officers (CEOs) of each of the conventional GNSS.

    Alternative PNT grows and expands

    Two new entrants to the positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) marketplace offer key capabilities to fill in the gaps left by GNSS. A new satellite timing and location (STL) service from low-Earth orbit satellites, provided by Satelles and Orolia, gives a strong signal capable of penetrating buildings.

    Satellite Time and Location (STL) Service. Pursuant to a recent announcement of new PNT solutions independent of GPS/GNSS signals, provided via the Iridium constellation, GPS World talked with Jean-Yves Courtois, CEO of Orolia. Orolia has partnered with Satelles to bring new PNT products and services to the global market, with a focus on military, and defense, government and commercial customers worldwide.

    Jean-Yves Courtois, CEO of Orolia

    Jean-Yves Courtois, CEO of Orolia.

    “We are a manufacturer and integrator of timing equipment,” Courtois said. Orolia is the parent company of GPS/GNSS product and service providers Spectracom, McMurdo and Spectratime. “This new STL service is not fully commercialized yet, but it’s operational and it can be tested. Receivers are available and can be integrated into our equipment.

    “The timing signal is very accurate and close enough to GPS for most timing applications, although the positioning accuracy is lower than what GPS users are used to. It is an augmentation for timing primarily, and secondarily for positioning.

    “In terms of timing accuracy, it provides on the order of tenths of microseconds in accuracy, and this covers a lot of timing applications, very familiar to us and to our customers. This is an ideal timing backup or augmentation of GPS. As number 2 worldwide in high-precision timing, we know this market and its applications very well.”

    Correlator beamforming. The Locata Corporation announced a patented correlator beamforming technology to stem multipath mitigation. The new technique’s performance under rigorous testing by the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology will be detailed in the January 2017 issue. Look for it! Here are a series of snippets as a preview of that lengthy technical article appearing in Richard Langley’s Innovation column.

    “Unlike conventional or traditional beamsteering technology, the new correlator beamforming approach combines RF signals received by any number of individual antenna elements into a single switched-RF signal. This time-multiplexed signal is then downconverted and digitized by a single RF front-end. The correlator beamforming design will should offer cost savings because the resulting data stream is processed using a single correlator channel per beam. This markedly reduces the complexity when compared to the traditional beamsteering methodology.

    “The correlator beamforming technique performs antenna array signal processing to form beams as part of a receiver’s correlation process. The complete explanation of this technology can quickly get complex, even for the seasoned RF engineer. To describe this process more simply, we will assume noiseless signals and no multipath (except as noted), as well as equal noise figures for all front-end processing chains. To further simplify our explanation, modulation on the carrier and switching losses will be ignored.”

    “To evaluate the performance of correlator beamforming as fairly as possible compared to traditional beamsteering and single-element processing, AFIT set up its data collection such that all three approaches could be implemented in a software receiver. Additionally, a seven-element Naval Air Systems Command GPS Antenna System 1 (GAS-1) antenna was used for this experiment. The antenna was mounted on a 51-inch (130-centimeter) diameter rolled-edge ground plane provided to the ANT Center by the MITRE Corporation.”

    “The testing focused on demonstrating an easily modified GNSS receiver to potentially deliver a low-cost solution for mitigating multipath — specifically targeting short delay and carrier multipath. The results presented here show that the multipath rejection performance nearly equals that of a traditional beamsteering GNSS receiver. Applications that can significantly benefit from this technology include stationary GNSS monitoring installations such as those used in satellite-based and ground-based augmentation systems and GNSS receivers for autonomous vehicles and UAVs in high multipath areas such as urban canyons.”

    GPS III ready, steady

    Col. Steve Whitney, Director, U.S. Air Force GPS Directorate
    Col. Steve Whitney, Director, U.S. Air Force GPS Directorate

    “The [GPS III] program is  working to solve several technical challenges as we progress to completion,” Col. Steve Whitney, director of the U.S. Air Force GPS Directorate, wrote in GPS World’s December issue. “SV-01 testing uncovered electro-magnetic interference between a payload component and a hosted payload. Testing also uncovered electron impact issues on the L-band antenna elements. In partnership with Lockheed Martin, the program developed corrective action and design mitigations for both of these issues and is implementing these steps within our production flow for all the SVs.”

    “In the coming year, SV-02, the second GPS III satellite, will also be progressing towards completing production. Currently, all of the SV-02 sub-assemblies have been received by Lockheed Martin and are being integrated into the spacecraft. The next major step in the production flow for SV-02 will be to mate it with its propulsion core.

    “Recently, we completed negotiations with Lockheed Martin to extend the production line with purchases of SV-09 and SV-10. These satellites will be technically equivalent to SV-01 through SV-08. This $395 million purchase of two satellites marks a significant affordability milestone for the procurement of GPS III satellites.

    “Looking ahead, we are analyzing how to acquire satellites beyond SV-10. We are executing a phased strategy which starts first with determining the viability of a GPS III production design existing beyond the current contractor. We awarded an initial phase of contracts to the Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, and Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in May 2016 to provide a feasibility assessment of the readiness of their satellites designs. In this phase, the contractors will provide a GPS III production design, manufacturing plans and a navigation payload brassboard test report, along with manufacturing/production processes and facilities maturity.”

    Galileo coming on strong

    Director of the Galileo Programme Paul Verhoef of the European Commission wrote in that same issue of the magazine, “The production of the satellites continues to maintain a steady rhythm, with a production line stretching from suppliers across Europe to OHB and SSTL and then to ESA’s ESTEC Test Centre in the Netherlands for acceptance testing, based on a wide range of simulated space tests.”

    Closing out the year on a triumphant note, Galileo declared its Initial Services on December 15.

    Paul Verhoef, director of the Galileo Programme and Navigation-related Activities, European Space Agency.
    Paul Verhoef, director of the Galileo Programme and Navigation-related Activities, European Space Agency.

    “The acceptance of the next satellites to launch is scheduled for this year’s end,” continued Verhoef. “Along with the two more Ariane 5 launches to come — one in the second half of 2017 and another in 2018 — the current plan is to commission further launch services as well as additional satellites in order to have Galileo fully operational by 2020. For these launches, Galileo may be the first customer of the new Ariane-6 launch vehicle.

    “2017 will see the upgrade of various elements of the Galileo Ground Segment to reinforce its robustness, including updated releases to the Galileo Control Segment overseeing the satellites and the Galileo Mission Segment, overseeing the navigation signals. A new release of elements of the Galileo Security Facility, for security monitoring of the system, as well as the secure Public Regulated Service, will be deployed at the two Galileo Security Monitoring Centres.

    “The Galileo Ground Segment will gain a sixth tracking telemetry and control facility, for monitoring the satellite platforms in Papeete, Tahiti, and additional processing chains for increased redundancy will be deployed across the Uplink Stations in Kourou, Reunion and Noumea used to update the navigation message information. Similar redundant chains will be finalized for all 15 current Galileo Sensor Stations, which perform continuous collection of Galileo signals to identify the tiniest clock error or satellite drift.”

    EGNOS. “Along with the progress of Galileo, contracts are planned to cater for the further development of the ESA-designed European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service, Europe’s first navigation system. EGNOS was certified for safety-of-life aviation use in 2011, and is managed by the European Commission through a contract with operator the European Satellite Services Provider, based in France. ESA will support the technical evolution of EGNOS version 3, intended as multi-constellation in nature, again through the Horizon 2020 framework.”

    GLONASS looks forward to a new signal: CDMA!

    Sergey Karutin, GLONASS Chief Designer, wrote “On the threshold of the first GLONASS-K2 launch, new GLONASS reference documents were published in October 2016, describing the family of code-division multiple-access (CDMA) radionavigation signals. The draft GLONASS Open Service Performance Standard has been developed. The GLONASS User Information Support System continues to evolve.”

    From left: Sergey Karutin, GLONASS designer general; Nicolay Testoedov, director general, SC Information Satellite Systems; and Andrey Tulin, director general, SC Russian Space Systems.
    From left: Sergey Karutin, GLONASS designer general;
    Nicolay Testoedov, director general, SC Information Satellite Systems; and Andrey Tulin, director general, SC Russian Space Systems.

    “The system transmitting CDMA navigation signals is referred to in four interrelated interface control documents containing general information on signals and the detailed description of signal structures and digital message data. The new signals make it possible to include 63 satellites in the constellation, not only in circular medium-Earth orbit but also on geostationary and high-Earth orbits.

    “The transition to the flexible string-type structure of the message data produces 2-second periodicity of integrity information delivery to users. The increased number of digits occupied by the ephemeris and clock parameters contributes to a better orbit and clock broadcast accuracy. The ephemeris broadcast precision improves from 0.4 to 0.001 meters. Time-stamp length in CDMA signal has increased to 30 bits, compared to 12 bits of frequency-division multiple-access signals.”

    BeiDou approaches full regional services

    Li Wang
    Li Wang

    “In 2017, three to four launches of BeiDou satellites will occur,” wrote Li Wang, Director of the International Cooperation Center in China’s Satellite Navigation Office. “BDS will provide basic services to the countries along the Belt and Road region by 2018, and possess global service capability by 2020.”

    “BDS will keep improving its nationwide reference station network and steadily enhance its service performance. The dense reference stations for the nationwide frame network will be constructed by 2018, providing meter and decimeter level real-time location services for users in China, even centimeter level service in some areas.

    “BDS will carry out the design, validation and construction of SBAS in accordance with international civil aviation standards. The first GEO satellite of BDSBAS will be launched in around 2018. The satellite-based augmentation services covering China and surrounding regions will be provided from 2020, to provide CAT-I services to civil aviation users.

    “China will promote construction of a national comprehensive positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) system based on BDS, and strive to establish such a national PNT system with a united benchmark, no-gap coverage, security and effectiveness by 2030, as well as to upgrade capabilities to provide time and space information.”

     

  • Galileo declares Initial Services

    Galileo declares Initial Services

    At a Dec. 15 ceremony in Brussels titled “Galileo Goes Live,” two high officials of the European Commission issued the Galileo Initial Services Declaration.

    The Declaration of Initial Services means that the Galileo satellites and ground infrastructure are now operationally ready. These signals will be highly accurate but not available all the time, since the constellation is not yet complete and users cannot always count on four satellites being visible at one time at all points on the Earth.
    Simultaneously, the European GNSS Agency (GSA)  awarded the Galileo Service Operator (GSOp) contract, with a value of up to 1.5 billion euros, to Spaceopal, a joint venture between Telespazio and the German Space Agency (DLR).

    At the moment, the Galileo constellation consists of 18 satellites in orbit. However, two of these are in an orbit not totally useful for positioning and navigation. Four more, launched in November, may or may not have completed their on-orbit testing (a series of notice advisory to Galileo users or NAGUs appeared today relating to the flag status of each satellite, see details at the end of this story) but have not yet been integrated to the operational constellation. This is foreseen to take place in spring 2017.

    During the initial phase, the first Galileo signals will be used in combination with other satellite navigation systems, like GPS. In coming years, new satellites will be launched to enlarge the constellation, gradually improving Galileo availability worldwide. The constellation is expected to be complete by 2020 when Galileo will reach full operational capacity (FOC) of 30 satellites: 24 satellites plus six orbital spares, intended to prevent any interruption in service.

    “The announcement of Initial Services is the recognition that the effort, time and money invested by ESA and the Commission has succeeded, that the work of our engineers and other staff has paid off, that European industry can be proud of having delivered this fantastic system,” stated ESA Director general Jan Woerner.

    Paul Verhoef, ESA’s Director of the Galileo Programme and Navigation-related Activities, added, “Today’s announcement marks the transition from a test system to one that is operational. We are proud to be a partner in the Galileo programme.

    “Still, much work remains to be done. The entire constellation needs to be deployed, the ground infrastructure needs to be completed and the overall system needs to be tested and verified.

    “In addition, together with the Commission we have started work on the second generation, and this is likely to be a long but rewarding adventure.”

    Galileo Initial Services are managed by the European GNSS Agency (GSA). The overall Galileo programme is run by the European Commission, which has handed over the responsibility for the deployment of the system and technical support to operational tasks to the European Space Agency (ESA).

    Operator Contract

    The GSOp contract runs for 10 years and covers  operation and maintenance of the Galileo satellite system and its committed performance level: in particular, the operations and control of the system, the logistics and maintenance of the systems and infrastructure as well as the user support services.

    “With its emphasis on service performance, this contract will shape the future of Galileo. We look forward to building a strong partnership with Spaceopal as Galileo moves towards full operational capability under the responsibility of the GSA from January 2017,” said GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides.

    Specifically, under GSA management the contract awarded to Spaceopal includes:

    • Secure operations of Galileo from two mission control centres (GCC), located in Germany and Italy, and the European GNSS Service Centre (GSC) for user support services in Spain;
    • Management of the Galileo Data Distribution Network (GDDN);
    • Integrated logistics support and maintenance for the entire space and ground infrastructure;
    • Monitoring of the system performance;
    • Support the completion of the Galileo infrastructure and associated launches.

    Spaceopal has served as the contractor for Galileo operations since 2010 under the Galileo Full Operational Capability (FOC) Operations Framework Contract.

    Products and Services

    The first Galileo smartphone by Spanish company BQ is now available on the market, and other manufacturers are expected to follow suit. Application developers can now test their ideas on the basis of a real signal.

    With this Declaration, Galileo will start to deliver, in conjunction with GPS, the following three types services free of charge. Their availability will improve as more satellites are launched.

    The Open Service is a free mass-market service for users with enabled chipsets in, for instance, smartphones and car navigation systems. Fully interoperable with GPS, combined coverage will deliver more accurate and reliable positioning for users.

    Galileo’s Public Regulated Service is an encrypted, robust service for government-authorised users such as civil protection, fire brigades and the police.

    The Search and Rescue Service is Europe’s contribution to the long-running Cospas–Sarsat international emergency beacon location. The time between someone locating a distress beacon when lost at sea or in the wilderness will be reduced from up to three hours to just 10 minutes, with its location determined to within 5 km, rather than the previous 10 km.

    Maroš Šefčovič, à gauche, et Elżbieta Bieńkowska
    Maroš Šefčovič, à gauche, et Elżbieta Bieńkowska.

     

    Accolades and Encouragements

    At the “Galileo Goes Live” ceremony in Brussels, EC Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, responsible for the Energy Union, said: “Geo-localisation is at the heart of the ongoing digital revolution with new services that transform our daily lives. Galileo will increase geo-location precision ten-fold and enable the next generation of location-based technologies; such as autonomous cars, connected devices, or smart city services. Today I call on European entrepreneurs and say: imagine what you can do with Galileo — don’t wait, innovate!”

    Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska, responsible for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, said: “Galileo offering initial services is a major achievement for Europe and a first delivery of our recent Space Strategy. This is the result of a concerted effort to design and build the most accurate satellite navigation system in the world. It demonstrates the technological excellence of Europe, its know-how and its commitment to delivering space-based services and applications. No single European country could have done it alone.”

    Canadian GNSS manufacturer NovAtel,  a long-time participant in Europe’s space navigation programs, sent its congratulations to ESA, the EC and GSA upon the launch of Galileo Initial Services. President and CEO Michael Ritter stated, “Today’s declaration validates the confidence of the program’s supporters that Europe would join the world’s operators of global navigation satellite systems.”

    NovAtel‘s receivers, antennas and certified ground-reference station receivers have supported Galileo signals in anticipation of the complete constellation. NovAtel now broadcasts Galileo Precise Point Positioning (PPP) corrections through its TerraStar correction services, and states that its  OEM customers are already benefiting from the enhanced reliability, availability and accuracy the Galileo constellation adds to the GNSS.

    Graham Purves, president and CEO of Veripos, a provider of global precise point positioning (PPP) correction services to the marine oil and gas industry, stated, “As a European company, we are particularly proud and excited about the opportunities the Galileo services create for our customers. The reliability and safety enhancements made possible through these new services allow Veripos to continue to expand the capabilities of our cutting edge safety critical positioning solutions.”

    Veripos’s worldwide network of 80 reference stations already supports Galileo, enabling Veripos to deliver Galileo PPP corrections over satellite through products such as its commercially available Apex5 correction service. Veripos also offers Galileo support on its LD5 and LD56 GNSS receivers and Quantum software for industry leading high precision marine positioning solutions.

    Advisory Updates

    USABINIT NAGUs were issued for 11 satellites: 0101, 0102, 0103, 0203, 0204, 0205, 0206, 0208, 0209, 0210, and 0211. USABINIT, or Initially Usable, notifies users that a satellite is set healthy for the first time. 0104 had a power problem and is operating on E1 only. 0201 and 0202 were launched into lower orbits. 0207 and 0212-0214 are still undergoing commissioning and drifting to their designated orbital slots.

  • Directions 2017: The year of Galileo

    I write at an especially exciting moment for the Galileo satellite navigation system, as two flagship European programmes combine for the very first time.

    Mid-November will see the very first Galileo launch using an Ariane 5 launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, in place of the Soyuz that has served the constellation up until now. Four instead of two Galileo satellites will be launched at a time: The number of satellites girding the globe will rise at a single stroke from 14 to 18.

    Meanwhile, the European Union is set to declare Galileo operational for initial services at the end of this year, bringing the system to the point where it can finally start serving users.

    Paul Verhoef, director of the Galileo Programme and Navigation-related Activities, European Space Agency.
    Paul Verhoef, director of the Galileo Programme and Navigation-related Activities, European Space Agency.

    When Galileo Meets Ariane

    November’s launch has been years in the making, employing a specially customized variant of Europe’s heavy-lift workhorse rocket called the Ariane 5 ES (Evolution Storable) Galileo. It has more powerful lower stages and a reignitable upper stage, first used in 2008 to supply the low-Earth orbiting International Space Station.

    This new launcher design, adapted beginning in 2012 for Galileo, will carry a lower mass payload — four fully-fuelled 738-kg Galileo satellites plus their supporting dispenser — but must haul it to the much higher altitude of medium-Earth orbit, 23,522 km.

    This precisely targeted orbit actually lies 300 km above the Galileo constellation’s final working altitude, leaving Ariane’s upper stage in a stable graveyard orbit, while the quartet of satellites maneuver themselves down to their final height.

    Satellites. The satellites continue unchanged from those preceding them: Galileo full operational-capability (FOC) satellites with platforms from OHB in Germany and navigation payloads from Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd in the UK.

    All 14 FOC satellites follow the first four in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites launched in 2011 and 2012; these four validated overall Galileo system design with the first wholly European navigation fix in March 2013.

    Carrier. The four-satellite dispenser, the interface between the satellites and its launcher, is a wholly new design by Airbus Defence and Space. Its first role is to hold the satellites safely in position during their orbital flight and then to gently release them in separate directions. Its structure has been specially tuned to prevent harmful oscillations being triggered by the vibration and noise of launch. Its design was validated using complex finite-element modeling software, followed by practical testing of the dispenser together with dummy satellites.

    Launcher. Ariane’s interstage Vehicle Equipment Bay, hosting the rocket’s avionic brain, underwent a redesign to reduce mass. Engineers also had to take into account this Ariane ES version’s flight time, much longer than any of its predecessors, more than four hours in all.

    This involved a reworking of the launcher’s electronics and thermal subsystems, to ensure it maintains an optimal operational environment throughout a ballistic coast phase of more than three hours, between two firings of its EPS storable propellant upper stage. Two further Ariane 5 SE Galileo flights are planned to follow, one each for the remaining orbital planes.

    Members of the joint Galileo Launch and Early Operations Phase (LEOP) team at work in CNES Toulouse. A joint team from ESA and France’s CNES space agency oversee Galileo LEOPs – the initial switching on and checking and configuration of satellite systems. LEOP is run from either ESOC or CNES Toulouse, on an alternating basis. (Photo: ESA)
    Members of the joint Galileo Launch and Early Operations Phase (LEOP) team at work in CNES Toulouse. A joint team from ESA and France’s CNES space agency oversee Galileo LEOPs – the initial switching on and checking and configuration of satellite systems. LEOP is run from either ESOC or CNES Toulouse, on an alternating basis. (Photo: ESA)

    Ground Control. This launch will mark the first time that ESA carries out launch and early operations (LEOP) for four satellites simultaneously. Usually, simply shepherding a spacecraft through the first critical days in orbit is a demanding enough task. A combined team from ESA and France’s CNES space agency based in Toulouse will make contact, establish control, and then see the four satellites through their initial critical activities. Within the combined team, each position is paired with a counterpart from the other agency to provide three mixed shifts around the clock for these first crucial days. This same team has conducted all Galileo early operations to date alternately from Toulouse or ESA’s ESOC control center in Germany.

    The work starts with an initial check of on-board health and attitude, progressing to ensure each satellite’s pair of 1 x 5-meter solar wings are deployed and tracking the Sun, and then to point their antennas back towards Earth. Next comes a series of thruster firings to set the satellites onto a drift course into their final orbit, at which point they can be handed over to the Galileo Control Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, for routine operations, and to ESA’s Redu Centre in Belgium to commence a few months of detailed payload testing.

    Galileo at Your Service

    Around the same time as this key launch, GSAT-210 and GSAT-211, the two previous satellites launched in May of this year, will have completed their in-orbit testing, allowing them to be formally certified as operational members of the constellation. The four new satellites should follow them into operational status by mid-2017. However, the Galileo system will reach initial operational status without these latest six satellites. The European Commission on behalf of the European Union expects to declare the system operational and ready to offer initial services before the end of this year.

    This will mark a major milestone in the programme, awaited by many citizens in Europe and around the globe. Everyone with a Galileo-enabled receiver will be able to benefit from improved positioning, supplementing the already operational GPS constellation. ESA and the European GNSS Agency (GSA) have been working with European manufacturers of mass-market satnav chips and receivers to ensure that their products are Galileo-ready, offering detailed laboratory testing to close the loop between Galileo and industry.

    Transition. In parallel to the declaration of initial services, there will also be an institutional change, as the GSA takes up its role overseeing the exploitation of Galileo. At the start of 2017, the formal handover of Galileo infrastructure will be initiated, targeted to conclude by the middle of the year. This mission includes not only the Galileo satellites in space but also the far-flung ground stations located on every continent, essential to the continued high-performance operations of the Galileo system. It also includes the two European Galileo control centers, with the signals overseen from Fucino in Italy and the platforms monitored from Oberpfaffenhofen, plus the communication infrastructure connecting them all together.

    In the history of ESA, a research and development agency, this kind of handover to an operational body is not unprecedented; the agency handed Europe’s Meteosat weather satellites over to the newly created Eumetsat organisation, and pioneering telecommunication satellites came under the control of Eutelsat and Inmarsat. However, the Galileo ground segment will hold a special place in ESA history as one of the most complicated developments it has ever undertaken, serving to maintain the signals from the satellites to a nanosecond-scale of performance.

    ESA will maintain its role of system design authority and system procurement agent, continuing to support system exploitation as it prepares for the follow-on Galileo Second Generation (G2G) design, supported through the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. For example, the current contract of Galileo’s ground support operator will end next year, so ESA is supporting the GSA in initiating the contractual process to select a replacement operator. This contract covers all the interaction between the ground segment elements which are vital to the system as a whole. Maintaining continuity of service with transition to the new operator will certainly present a big challenge to the entire team, but one we are confident of meeting.

    Upgrade. In parallel, 2017 will see the upgrade of various elements of the Galileo Ground Segment to reinforce its robustness, including updated releases to the Galileo Control Segment overseeing the satellites and the Galileo Mission Segment, overseeing the navigation signals. A new release of elements of the Galileo Security Facility, for security monitoring of the system, as well as the secure Public Regulated Service, will be deployed at the two Galileo Security Monitoring Centres.

    The Galileo Ground Segment will gain a sixth tracking telemetry and control facility, for monitoring the satellite platforms in Papeete, Tahiti, and additional processing chains for increased redundancy will be deployed across the Uplink Stations in Kourou, Reunion and Noumea used to update the navigation message information. Similar redundant chains will be finalized for all 15 current Galileo Sensor Stations, which perform continuous collection of Galileo signals to identify the tiniest clock error or satellite drift.

    New Satellites. The production of the satellites themselves continues to maintain a steady rhythm, with a production line stretching from suppliers across Europe to OHB and SSTL and then to ESA’s ESTEC Test Centre in the Netherlands for acceptance testing, based on a wide range of simulated space tests. The acceptance of the next satellites to launch is scheduled for this year’s end. Along with the two more Ariane 5 launches to come — one in the second half of 2017 and another in 2018 — the current plan is to commission further launch services as well as additional satellites in order to have Galileo fully operational by 2020. For these launches, Galileo may be the first customer of the new Ariane-6 launch vehicle.

    EGNOS. Along with the progress of Galileo, contracts are planned to cater for the further development of the ESA-designed European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service, Europe’s first navigation system. EGNOS was certified for safety-of-life aviation use in 2011, and is managed by the European Commission through a contract with operator the European Satellite Services Provider, based in France. ESA will support the technical evolution of EGNOS version 3, intended as multi-constellation in nature, again through the Horizon 2020 framework.

    Finally, ESA is also addressing the challenges of satellite navigation beyond Galileo through the creation of the Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP), which will be proposed to Europe’s space ministers for approval in December. Applying ESA’s expertise from Galileo and EGNOS, the optional NAVISP will undertake research work in support of ESA Member States’ national objectives and industrial competitiveness in the upstream and downstream navigation sector, including the fusion of satellite navigation with various disruptive technologies and complementary positioning techniques.

  • The launch of 4 and declaration of Galileo operations

    The launch of 4 and declaration of Galileo operations

    “Now that we can rely on the powerful Ariane 5, we can anticipate the quicker completion of Galileo deployment, permitting the system to enter full operation,” said Paul Verhoef, ESA’s Director for the Galileo Programme and Navigation-related Activities, following the successful launch Nov. 17 of four satellites at once.

    Verhoef made the following further remarks to GPS World regarding Galileo’s future. The full text of his article will appear in the December issue.

    Paul Verhoef, ESA Director Satellite Navigation, at the Kourou launch site to witness Thursday's liftoff.
    Paul Verhoef, ESA Director Satellite Navigation, at the Kourou launch site to witness Thursday’s liftoff.

    “The European Union is set to declare Galileo operational for initial services at the end of this year, bringing the system to the point where it can start serving users.

    “November’s launch has been years in the making, employing a specially customized variant of Europe’s heavy-lift workhorse rocket called the Ariane 5 ES (Evolution Storable) Galileo. It has more powerful lower stages and a reignitable upper stage, first used in 2008 to supply the low-Earth orbiting International Space Station.

    “Two further Ariane 5 SE Galileo flights are planned to follow, one each for the remaining orbital planes.

    Ariane 5 ES on liftoff from Kourou, French Guiana
    Ariane 5 ES on liftoff from Kourou, French Guiana

    “This new launcher design, adapted beginning in 2012 for Galileo, carried a lower mass payload — four fully-fuelled 738-kg Galileo satellites plus their supporting dispenser — but hauled it to the much higher altitude of medium-Earth orbit, 23,522 km. This precisely targeted orbit actually lies 300 km above the Galileo constellation’s final working altitude, leaving Ariane’s upper stage in a stable graveyard orbit, while the quartet of satellites maneuver themselves down to their final height.

    “The four-satellite dispenser, the interface between the satellites and its launcher, is a wholly new design by Airbus Defence and Space. Its first role is to hold the satellites safely in position during their orbital flight and then to gently release them in separate directions. Its structure has been specially tuned to prevent harmful oscillations being triggered by the vibration and noise of launch. Its design was validated using complex finite -element-modeling software, followed by practical testing of the dispenser together with dummy satellites.

    Launcher. “Ariane’s interstage Vehicle Equipment Bay, hosting the rocket’s avionic brain, underwent a redesign to reduce mass. Engineers also had to take into account this Ariane ES version’s flight time, much longer than any of its predecessors, more than four hours in all. This involved a reworking of the launcher’s electronics and thermal subsystems, to ensure it maintains an optimal operational environment throughout a ballistic coast phase of more than three hours, between two firings of its EPS storable propellant upper stage.

    Ground Control. “This launch marked the first time that ESA carried out launch and early operations (LEOP) for four satellites simultaneously. Usually, simply shepherding a spacecraft through the first critical days in orbit is a demanding enough task. A combined team from ESA and France’s CNES space agency based in Toulouse will make contact, establish control, and then see the four satellites through their initial critical activities. Within the combined team, each position is paired with a counterpart from the other agency to provide three mixed shifts around the clock for these first crucial days. This same team has conducted all Galileo early operations to date alternately from Toulouse or ESA’s ESOC control center in Germany.

    “The work starts with an initial check of on-board health and attitude, progressing to ensure each satellite’s pair of 1 x 5-meter solar wings are deployed and tracking the Sun, and then to point their antennas back towards Earth. Next comes a series of thruster firings to set the satellites onto a drift course into their final orbit, at which point they can be handed over to the Galileo Control Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, for routine operations, and to ESA’s Redu Centre in Belgium to commence a few months of detailed payload testing.

    Galileo at Your Service
    “Around the same time as this key launch, GSAT-210 and GSAT-211, the two previous satellites launched in May of this year, will have completed their in-orbit testing, allowing them to be formally certified as operational members of the constellation. The four new satellites should follow them into operational status by mid-2017. However, the Galileo system will reach initial operational status without these latest six satellites. The European Commission on behalf of the European Union expects to declare the system operational and ready to offer initial services before the end of this year.

    “This will mark a major milestone in the programme, awaited by many citizens in Europe and around the globe. Everyone with a Galileo-enabled receiver will be able to benefit from improved positioning, supplementing the already operational GPS constellation. ESA and the European GNSS Agency (GSA) have been working with European manufacturers of mass-market satnav chips and receivers to ensure that their products are Galileo-ready, offering detailed laboratory testing to close the loop between Galileo and industry.

    Transition. “In parallel to the declaration of initial services, there will also be an institutional change, as the GSA takes up its role overseeing the exploitation of Galileo. At the start of 2017, the formal handover of Galileo infrastructure will be initiated, targeted to conclude by the middle of the year. This mission includes not only the Galileo satellites in space but also the far-flung ground stations located on every continent, essential to the continued high-performance operations of the Galileo system. It also includes the two European Galileo control centers, with the signals overseen from Fucino in Italy and the platforms monitored from Oberpfaffenhofen, plus the communication infrastructure connecting them all together.

    Upgrade. “2017 will see the upgrade of various elements of the Galileo Ground Segment to reinforce its robustness, including updated releases to the Galileo Control Segment overseeing the satellites and the Galileo Mission Segment, overseeing the navigation signals. A new release of elements of the Galileo Security Facility, for security monitoring of the system, as well as the secure Public Regulated Service, will be deployed at the two Galileo Security Monitoring Centres.  The Galileo Ground Segment will gain a sixth tracking telemetry and control facility, for monitoring the satellite platforms in Papeete, Tahiti, and additional processing chains for increased redundancy will be deployed across the Uplink Stations in Kourou, Reunion and Noumea used to update the navigation message information. Similar redundant chains will be finalized for all 15 current Galileo Sensor Stations, which perform continuous collection of Galileo signals to identify the tiniest clock error or satellite drift.”

  • Portrait of Galileo: European groups say constellation is ready for service

    galileo-programme-update-ion-2016-vf1
    From a Galileo programme update presented at ION GNSS+ 2016.

    Spokespersons from the European Commission, the European Space Agency and the European GNSS Agency (GSA) built a portrait of Galileo at the ION GNNS+ conference of a satellite constellation ready to step upon the world stage. Meanwhile, four new satellites are scheduled to launch aboard a single Ariane rocket on Nov. 17, leading to declaration of initial services by the end of the year.

    With 14 satellites in orbit, 12 ordered and four on the launchpad, system operators feel confident in predicting initial operational capability by the end of this year. They already have their eyes set on additional service distinctions driven by emerging new requirement from user communities:

    • Authentication, for applications requiring trusted position and timing information; a key feature to enable new types of commercial applications such as pay-as-you-drive car insurance, road user charging (highway tolling) and access to mobile content
    • A robust timing service
    • Advanced receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (ARAIM)
    • Emergency warning services
    • A Galileo regional service
    • Ionosphere prediction service
    • SBAS authentication

    Key areas identified to drive Galileo evolution included timing for 5G telecoms, digital video broadcasting and autonomous vehicles.

    GNSS will increasingly be used not as a sole localization solution but deeply integrated with several positioning networks and sensors to work across an array of contexts, according to the several European experts. However, despite growing alternative solutions, GNSS will remain core as the most cost-effective global positioning technology, especially for outdoor location information and larger scale applications.

    Looking at the future, for the majority of mass-market applications, an accuracy of a few meters is sufficient, but key strategic users will need (some already need) better performance that must be satisfied. Galileo evolution has to offer enhanced performance, enabling new and strategic applications, to remain at the center of the positioning and timing market.

    Galileo’s evolutionary targets to improve in the future were listed as: a ranging accuracy between 2 and 5 times that to be declared at Galileo FOC (in 2020?); position accuracy down to sub-meter level; timing accuracy increased by two times over Galileo FOC; better support of spoofed users; enhanced authentication (nav message authentication) and anti-replay.

    New Operations Center in Spain. The European GNSS Agency (GSA) is gearing up to assume its operational role for Galileo in early 2017. During the summer the GSA formally accepted their Loyola de Palacio facility in Madrid, Spain that houses the European GNSS Service Centre (GSC).

    GSA already oversees the operation and service provision for the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) (since 2015) along with managing the security accreditation and general security provision for both programmes.

    Since 2013, the core team at GSC has been providing limited services and working as a precursor to GSC v1. Its key work includes supporting the lead-up to Galileo Initial Services provision, along with operating the GSC Helpdesk, disseminating orbital products to the Search and Rescue (SAR) community, supporting GNSS-related research and industrial activity and monitoring user satisfaction. Once operational, GSC v1 will be connected to the Galileo core system, thus enabling the long anticipated Commercial Service. This service is expected to enter operations by mid-2017.

    Galileo Hackathon in Berlin. The GSA invites coders, app developers and other interested parties to a two-day event in early November, the Galileo Hackathon. “Be one of the first to use Galileo!” The online invitation seeks those who want to shape the future of Location-Based Services (LBS) and Geo-IoT to become pioneer developers, showcase their skills, connect with the Geo-IoT app-dev community, and win prizes. November 3–4 in Berlin.

  • Galileo Initial Services looming

    With Galileo Initial Services at last on the horizon and a quadruple satellite launch scheduled for November, here’s hoping that Europe’s GNSS constellation will be delivering limited, but reliable, global PNT services before the year is out.

    The four Galileo satellites for Arianespace’s first Ariane 5 mission for the constellation are being prepared at ESA’s launch facility in French Guiana. The flight is scheduled for 17 November. However neither these four new satellites, nor the two orbited in May, are required to deliver Galileo Initial Services, which should be launched officially some time in November. Fingers crossed.

    The European GNSS Agency (GSA) is gearing up to assume its operational role for Galileo in early 2017. During the summer the GSA formally accepted their Loyola de Palacio facility in Madrid, Spain that houses the European GNSS Service Centre (GSC). This is a significant milestone in the development of the programme and its service provision as Galileo’s “door to the GNSS world” as GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides described the facility at the handover ceremony.

    GSA already oversees the operation and service provision for the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) (since 2015) along with managing the security accreditation and general security provision for both programmes.

    The GSC offers over 1,100 square metres of space and currently employs over 40 people. Since 2013, the core team at GSC has been providing limited services and working as a precursor to GSC v1. Its key work includes supporting the lead up to Galileo Initial Services provision, along with operating the GSC Helpdesk, disseminating orbital products to the Search and Rescue (SAR) community, supporting GNSS-related research and industrial activity and monitoring user satisfaction. Once operational, GSC v1 will be connected to the Galileo core system, thus enabling the long anticipated Commercial Service. This service is expected to enter operations by mid-2017.

    Once the Galileo Operations Contract is awarded and Initial Services officially declared, the GSC is expected to see a significant increase in staff.

    Also in the summer CNES President and France’s inter-ministerial coordinator for European satellite navigation programmes Jean-Yves Le Gall was elected as the new chair of the GSA Administrative Board with Mark Bacon, representing the United Kingdom, elected as deputy chair.

    “I am honoured to have been elected chair of the GSA Administrative Board, with Galileo now poised to enter its operational phase,” said Le Gall. “This election confirms the desire of Member States to join forces on the cusp of a prolific period for European space as we move Galileo towards full operational capability.”

    Brexit blues?

    Mark Bacon added “I am very pleased to have been elected to work with the Board and I look forward to helping the GSA deliver on the Galileo and EGNOS programmes over the coming years.”  However the UK’s decision to leave the EU (Brexit) must make his position rather uncomfortable – and temporary – to say the least.

    The GSA Administrative Board is composed of representatives from each EU Member State, the European Commission, and the EU parliament. The Board meets three times per year to ensure that the Agency performs its tasks correctly. As things stand if the UK is no longer an EU Member State it must lose its representative(s) on the advisory board.

    However, the relationship between the UK and EU space programmes is, of course, subject to the Brexit negotiations. The UK will almost certainly remain a member of the European Space Agency (ESA) as this is a pan-European body not an EU agency, however when it leaves the EU the country will have to renegotiate terms if it wants to continue to participate in the key EU programmes such as Galileo GNSS and Copernicus Earth Observation system.

    The ESA is autonomous from the EU and should not be directly affected by Brexit confirmed Jean Bruston, head of ESA’s EU policy office at a media briefing in mid-September. But “As soon as it [Britain] is leaving the EU it is not participating in these programmes [Galileo / Copernicus] any longer,” he observed.

    In addition, UK-based companies hold contracts worth tens of millions of euros from ESA to supply hardware for the Copernicus and Galileo GNSS. “If nothing changes [and Brexit goes ahead], we would have to stop these contracts,” said Bruston bluntly.

    Of course, Britain could still contribute to Galileo and Copernicus if it negotiated a third-party agreement with the EU, as Norway and Switzerland (both non EU members) have done. The down side is that this may take some time to initiate, let alone complete, and if Britain sticks to its guns on issues such as free movement of people then the likelihood of a successful outcome for the UK is not high.

    In an interview with French media ESA director-general Jan Woerner reinforced Bruston’s views saying that “the UK will remain a member state of ESA, this is very clear” but also continuing “As we are also dealing with European programmes like Copernicus and Galileo, and also the question of UK citizens working on the continent and all these legal issues, we have to take this into account.”

    EU opportunity

    Many in ‘continental Europe’, as we Brits so often condescend to describe our fellow Europeans, will be more than happy to see the U.K. no longer participating in deciding key aspects of EU space and other policy areas.

    It is no coincidence that the European Commission has become much more vocal on plans for a European defence force since the Brits announced their departure. The U.K. has long been opposed to the concept of an ‘EU Army.’ However planning and military cooperation between Member States outside normal NATO channels has been increasing over many years. The small and discreet (so discreet that I didn’t realise the exact location of its HQ in Brussels until the recent terrorist incidents meant burly Belgian paratroopers were stationed outside and I asked them what they were guarding. Has to be said they were not discreet!) has seen its budget frozen for the last five years, but this may now change.

    The interface of EU space and defence policy – in particular ‘dual use’ issues – will also become simpler without the U.K.’s protests. A leaked draft of the upcoming EU Space Policy communication talked directly of dual-use synergies to reinforce security from space, in particular to reduce costs and improve efficiency, and that the next generation of EU GNSS and Copernicus programmes should be designed from the start to be more relevant for security purposes. Defence-related research is also slated for future Horizon 2020 calls.

    The draft policy document also underlines that with EU space programmes becoming fully operational, building stability, trust and confidence in users is a key objective. Current services must be fully deployed and their long-term continuity and evolution assured. This continuity should be driven by user needs and take into consideration the mid-term (hardly mid-term for Galileo!) evaluation of the programmes that should happen in 2017. For Galileo and EGNOS, the document looks to improvements in the current services, including greater robustness and performance, and provision of additional services, such as regional or timing services.

    California dreaming

    So with Brexit what is the U.K.’s GNSS – and space-related – industry and research community to do? Of course many of the UK industrial players are multi-national companies and internal transfer of people and/ or projects will overcome many issues. And bi-lateral collaborative agreements on exchange of talent and ideas between partners can also achieve the same results for smaller companies and research groups. However not having a seat in the policy process and the development of programmes will put ‘UK plc’ at a distinct disadvantage in my opinion.

    But U.K. leaders say that Brexit is an opportunity to be seized and that the U.K. should be looking to sell  goods and services in other global markets than the EU. Which is something most U.K. industry has been doing since trade/ time began. And in my experience U.K. business leaders have always been much more eager to go jump on a plane to the States or Australia than go visit their European neighbours – something to do with our renowned national language skills perhaps?

    Space is no exception – and one that has been shown to be a success in recent times. A helping hand is provided by InnovateUK, the U.K.’s government innovation agency, that is organising its third ‘Space Mission UK’ to the US in November. These are trade and investment missions specifically designed to support U.K. start-up companies to build world-leading space and satellite application businesses.

    Space Mission 1 visited Utah, LA and Silicon Valley in August 2015 and Space Mission 2 landed in Houston in November 2015. Space Mission 3 will visit San Francisco and LA from 5-11 November this year.

    Mission programmes are varied but typically include visits to companies working at the forefront of the sector, networking opportunities with investors and corporate venture people interested in space, visits to incubators, accelerators and technology hubs, and masterclasses on pitch development, business culture and market entry.

    The previous two Space Missions have had immediate impact for the companies involved, including securing over £1 million in investment, and initiating collaborations with major organisations such as NASA and (ironically) ESA, and winning contracts with the UK Ministry of Defence at home.

    GNSS-related companies in previous missions include Arralis who build high-end semiconductor chips but have also been funded to develop novel GNSS antennas, and an exciting data fusion start-up – Gyana – that takes complex inputs from multiple data sources, including satellite, to build simple to understand 3D situational images. The founder of the business, engineering graduate Joyeeta Das, has raised US $1.1m since the mission.

    You can find a complete list of companies who have participated on the previous missions here.

    The selection for Space Mission 3 has closed and I am told there is at least one GNSS applications company that has been chosen to be on the plane in November. Good luck to them all!

    Google emergency LBS upgrade

    E112 is a location-based version of the 112 universal European emergency number, where the telecommunication operator transmits location information to the emergency centre in parallel to the call itself. With more than 70 percent of calls to emergency services coming from mobile phones, getting help fast and efficiently to the caller can be challenging if they don’t know where they are. Now, in a major step forward for implementation, Google has created and rolled out in two European countries (U.K. and Estonia) its Emergency Location Service on Android, with other regions to follow. The feature, when supported by the caller’s network, sends the phone’s location to emergency services when the 112 (or equivalent) emergency number is dialed.

    Emergency Location Service is supported by more than 99 percent of existing Android devices (version 2.3 and above) through Google Play services. The service activates when supported by the mobile network operator or emergency infrastructure provider.

    The new geographical location system claims to identify the source of a mobile phone emergency call to typically within 0.003 square kilometres (less than half the size of a football field) instead of a current average of around 12 square kilometres.

    When an emergency call is made with an enabled Android smartphone, the phone automatically activates its location service and sends its position by text message to the 112 service. This usually takes less than 20 seconds. This text message is not visible on the handset and is not charged for.

    And the first European Galileo-ready smartphone has been launched with the Aquaris X5 Plus smartphone, produced by the Spanish technology company BQ, and based on the Galileo-supported Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor with Galileo capability accessible via a software update to be released in Quarter 4 2016.

    U.S.-based Qualcomm announced in June that it was adding support for Galileo across its Snapdragon processor and modern portfolios for smartphone, computing, automotive and IoT applications.

    As well as Galileo capability, the Aquaris X5 Plus is powered by the latest Google Android OS and has all the usual features of a top end smart phone including 16 mega pixel ‘back’ camera and support for 4k video recording with a stabiliser and fingerprint recognition for added security.

    If you want to take the pulse of the GNSS user technology industry and keep up with the latest trends then you’ll need to get your hands on the GSA’s GNSS User Technology Report due out at the beginning of October.

    The 2016 report will be launched on 4 October as part of the Horizon 2020 Space Information Days in Prague. This two-day GSA-hosted event will introduce the third call for GSA-funded Horizon 2020 research and innovation proposals for Galileo and EGNOS.

    The document will take an in-depth look at the latest state-of-the-art GNSS receiver technology, along with providing expert analysis on the various trends that are defining the future global GNSS technology landscape. The report will focus on three key areas: mass market solutions; transport safety and liability-critical solutions; and high precision, timing and asset management solutions.

    Pulsar GNSS for deep space

    The use of pulsars, highly magnetized, rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation with a very precise period, have been potential candidates for a deep space navigation system for many years. Now a paper from the U.K.’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the University of Leicester shows that pulsars can be used to obtain position along a particular direction in space to an accuracy of two kilometres in the direction of the pulsar. Furthermore such a technology could operate autonomously and greatly increase the number and capabilities of space missions, the paper claims.

    To calculate their position a space craft would need to carry a small X-ray telescope. The method uses X-rays emitted from pulsars, which can be used to work out the position of a craft in space in 3 dimensions to an accuracy of 30 km at the distance of Neptune. Certain types of pulsar, called ‘millisecond pulsars’, emit pulses of radiation with the regularity and precision of an atomic clock and therefore could be used much like GNSNS in space.

    The paper, published in Experimental Astronomy[1], details simulations undertaken using data, such as the pulsar positions and a craft’s distance from the Sun, for an ESA feasibility study of the concept. The simulations took these data and tested the concept of triangulation by pulsars with current X-ray telescope technology and state-of-the art position, velocity and timing analysis. This generated a list of usable pulsars and measurements of how accurately a small telescope can lock onto these pulsars and calculate a location.

    The key finding was that at a distance of 30 astronomical units – the approximate distance of Neptune from the Earth – an accuracy of 2km or 5km can be calculated in the direction of a particular pulsar (PSR B1937+21) by locking onto the pulsar for ten or one hours respectively and that by locking onto three pulsars, a 3D location with an accuracy of 30km can be calculated.

    This is an improvement on the current navigation methods of the ground-based Deep Space Network (DSN) and European Space Tracking (ESTRACK) network as it could be autonomous with no need for Earth contact for months or years, if an advanced atomic clock is also on the craft. Also ESTRACK and DSN can only track a small number of spacecraft at any one time. It is also possible that the pulsar technique could be quicker.

    Dr Setnam Shemar from NPL commented: “How these [space]craft navigate will in future become a limiting factor to our ambitions. The cost of maintaining current large ground-based communications systems based on radio waves is high and they can only communicate with a small number of craft at a time. Using pulsars as location beacons in space, together with a space atomic clock, allows for autonomy and greater capability in the outer solar system.”

    This simulation uses real-world technology and proves its capabilities for this navigation task. The X-ray telescope can be launched into space due to its low weight and size and it will be flown on a mission to Mercury in 2018. Could we be seeing the emergence of a navigation technology that can enable a new era of space exploration?

    And with that look into the future it is time to say “adios” to this column. From now on my EAGER dispatches will be sprinkled through other GPS World imprints and platforms. I’ll be at the global geospatial fun-fest that is Intergeo in Hamburg in October and sniffing around the first Galileo ‘hackathon’ in Berlin in early November, so I hope to see many of you at those and subsequent Euro-GNSS events in the future.

    A bientot as they say in these parts.

    [1] Towards practical autonomous deep-space navigation using X-Ray pulsar timing’ Shemar, S., Fraser, G., Heil, L. et al. Exp Astron (2016). doi:10.1007/s10686-016-9496-z