Celestia UK has won a €800,000 European Space Agency (ESA) contract to develop an innovative positioning, navigation and timing(PNT) solution based on LEO satellite constellations for 5G networks and applications.
The contract was granted under ESA’s Navigation, Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP).
Malachy Devlin, CEO, Celestia UK
Celestia’s LEO-SYN+ project is intended to boost the reliability and performance of GNSS. It will use low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite signals of opportunity to provide a resilient position and time reference for 5G networks and improve the robustness of GNSS signals.
It includes development of a PNT receiver compatible with multi-GNSS constellations and LEO signals of opportunity, as well as testing of the solution in 5G networks. A prototype receiver will validate the product design and the technology development, paving the way for additional applications of the technology to other critical infrastructures after the initial ESA NAVSIP roll-out.
To deliver the ambitious project, Celestia UK is partnering with Heriot-Watt University, which brings extensive knowledge in satellite communications and digital signal processing, and The Scotland 5G Centre, the national center for accelerating deployment and adoption of 5G and realizing its economic and societal potential for Scotland.
“It is a great benefit for the business to have won an ESA NAVSIP contract,” said Malachy Devlin, CEO of Celestia UK. “We are looking forward to collaborating with ESA and our partners to unlock the potential to improve the resilience of 5G networks with our PNT solution.”
Ian Sharp, head of Business Development, The Scotland 5G Centre, added,“The Scotland 5G Centre is providing businesses access to 5G services through a national network of innovation hubs, under its 5GConnect Programme. It is well known that 5G will support higher data throughput and interactive services through reduced latency. However, 5G will also provide new possibilities for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT). Use of advanced antennas and positioning over satellite will be critical for outdoor applications where precise navigation is essential to meet safety requirements for the likes of drone navigation and autonomous vehicles. We are delighted to be working alongside Celestia UK, supporting the innovative LEO-SYN+ project, which will utilise our cutting edge 5G network.”
Europe’s leading companies and research institutes working on positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) technologies met in the Netherlands in mid-June for this year’s NAVISP Industry Days. The event is devoted to the latest developments in the Navigation Innovation and Support Program (NAVISP), sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA).
NAVISP is focused on navigation technologies beyond Galileo and EGNOS, with many of the same engineers that led the development of Europe’s own satnav constellation working with European industry and academia on exciting new concepts.
Photo: ESA
About 130 people participated in the two-day event, which took place June 16-17 at the ESA-ESTEC center in Noordwijk aan Zee, The Netherlands.
As well as attending presentations on NAVISP projects, participants had the opportunity to meet and talk shop in the exhibition area, which displayed products and hardware such as an improved-accuracy smartphone board and drones for data gathering.
The PNT sector accounts for 10% of the European economy.
Throughout Industry Days, the importance of innovation for competitiveness was highlighted, to enable companies to adapt to rapid technological change in the fast-growing PNT sector, which today accounts for 10% of the European economy.
“NAVISP’s strength lies in supporting all types of actors, from start-ups and SMEs to large enterprises, and space companies to companies in other sectors that have recognized the added value of PNT solutions,” said Pierluigi Mancini, NAVISP program manager. “That means playing a part in advancing research and product development, as well as commercialization to broadly foster and support European industry in addressing technology, market and regulatory risks.”
At the Industry Days, many different projects across varying market areas along different points in the value chain were highlighted such as air mobility testbeds, new technologies for roads and other infrastructure, support for maritime navigation, development of novel PNT satellites, studies for quantum-based PNT, and weather monitoring based on collaborative crowdsourcing.
The innovation potential of NAVISP activities was underlined by the fact that two new Navigation Directorate programs set to be proposed to ESA’s Council of Ministers this November — the in-orbit demonstration of low-Earth orbit PNT services and the GENESIS mission for precision Earth measurement — originated in NAVISP projects.
The entire set of the NAVISP Industry Days presentations can be found here.
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.”
This graphic represents measurements uploaded via the CAMALIOT app by thousands of volunteers. (Image: ESA)
More than 11,000 people around Europe and the world have turned their smartphones into GNSS monitoring tools by downloading the CAMALIOT app, so far delivering more than 53 billion measurements of meteorology and space weather patterns to researchers, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).
ESA asks CAMALIOT volunteers to leave their smartphones by a window each night with GNSS on. The phones record small variations in satellite signals, gathering data for machine-learning analysis. More than 50 smartphone models with dual-frequency receivers can use the app.
CAMALIOT was developed through ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP) with the support of the agency’s Navigation Science Office through its GNSS Science Support Centre. The combination of GNSS data, smartphone access and machine learning in support of science is a priority research line of ESA’s Navigation Science Office.
GNSS signals undergo scintillation as they pass through irregular plasma patches in the ionosphere. This electrically charged upper atmospheric layer is continuously changing, influenced by solar activity, geomagnetic conditions and the local time of day. Dual-frequency GNSS receivers can compensate for this effect by comparing their two frequencies.
As these signals head to Earth, they are also modified by the amount of water vapor in the lower atmosphere, helping to forecast rainfall in particular.
“Fixed satnav stations already monitor these effects, but these smartphone-based measurements are boosting our coverage hugely. We’re very gratified by all the support we’ve received,” said Vicente Navarro, ESA navigation engineer. ”These results will then undergo a Big Data machine-learning analysis, seeking out previously unseen patterns in both Earth and space weather.”
Formally known as the Application of Machine Learning Technology for GNSS IoT Data Fusion project, CAMALIOT is run by a consortium led by ETH Zurich in collaboration with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
NAVISP includes projects for autonomous and connected driving. (Image: ESA/F. Bagiana)
Many of the experts that designed and oversaw the Galileo system are now supporting European companies in developing new navigation technologies and services through the Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP) of the European Navigation Agency (ESA).
NAVISP supports navigation research and development, such as ways to improve satellite navigation, alternative positioning systems, and new navigation services and applications. Working in partnership with European industry and researchers, more than 200 NAVISP projects have been initiated so far.
NAVISP is divided into three elements.
Element 1 focuses on improving and expanding satellite navigation, as well as establishing novel positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services.
Element 2 focuses on innovation for competitiveness, developing new PNT products and services.
Element 3 supports European Union Member State priorities, including support for national testbeds and programs.
The European Space Agency is looking for navigation and positioning ideas, with its Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP) seeking input by March 31.
NAVISP is divided into a trio of elements. Element 1’s scope of activities ranges from initial feasibility studies and viability analyses all the way to full proof of concept for promising positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) systems and services.
To compile its annual Element 1 workplan, NAVISP invites innovative PNT concepts from companies or academic entities across NAVISP participating states. Those interested can submit a 1-page description, along with notifying their national ESA delegation of their application. See details here.
NAVISP Industry Days took place in 2020 at at ESA’s ESTEC, The Netherlands. (Photo: ESA)
The NAVISP Element 1 workplan supports cutting-edge European companies in development of novel PNT technologies and services. Underscoring the commercial priority of this field, 20 ESA Member States plus Canada have joined the program.
PNT underpins a 10th of Europe’s economy, according to ESA, in areas such as transport, precision agriculture, power, communication, banking and the fast-growing internet of things.
Satellite navigation, with signals from space extending across the globe, represents the single biggest source of PNT information, but these signals are not available in all locations and are vulnerable to natural or human-made interference.
NAVISP Element 1 is focused on innovation in PNT, involving novel concepts, techniques, technologies and systems along the entire value chain. They often combine GNSS with other solutions such as artificial intelligence, other sensors, adding Wi-Fi or 5G signals to PNT fixes, or employing high-altitude atmospheric platforms to supplement GNSS coverage over regions in need.
Space Codesign Systems has received funding from the European Space Agency (ESA) to support the design of a spaceborne GNSS receiver. The company is a provider of an end-to-end automated solution, from high-level application specification to physical board compilation.
The spaceborne receiver will target system-on-chip (SoC) field programmable gate arrays (FPGA). SpaceStudio software by Space Codesign Systems is a development environment that eases the design flow of advanced algorithms targeting FPGA technology without the inherent complexity of FPGA.
In avionic systems, transition from federated avionics architectures to integrated modular avionics (IMA) is observed. IMA architectures provide a shared computing platform, communications, and input/output resource pool that is partitioned by multiple tasks of differing design assurance criticalities. A similar transition is occurring in the world of satellite systems.
“The main objective of the project is to add features to explore different architectures and hardware/software partitions for spaceborne GNSS receivers, such as [for] GPS and Galileo, operating in both low Earth orbits (LEOs) and high Earth orbits (HEOs),” said Guy Bois, founder, Space Codesign System.
The project will also support the XtratuM Next Generation (XNG) hypervisor for mixed-criticality systems in the virtual platform offered by SpaceStudio, where multiple tasks with different criticality and certification assurance levels are integrated using a shared computing platform.
The funding is under ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP) Element 2, made possible thanks to the Canadian Space Agency’s participation in the NAVISP. NAVISP is an optional program of ESA initiated in 2017 to support the generation and introduction of innovation in various positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) market segments. The main goal of NAVISP is to generate innovative concepts, techniques and systems linked to the highly competitive and evolving global market for PNT technologies. Element 2 continues to demonstrate its relevance, with more than 120 projects incubated so far.
NAVISP includes projects for autonomous and connected driving. (Image: ESA/F. Bagiana)
The European Space Agency (ESA) is issuing a call for ideas to overcome GNSS service gaps in urban canyons by using imaging and 3D mapping technology. A workshop to discuss the call for ideas will be held virtually on July 6.
According to ESA, the growing availability of high-quality image sensors and high-fidelity 3D maps — such as those within smartphone mapping apps — offer a promising way to shrink the performance gap caused by urban canyons and multipath for future mobility applications in terms of ubiquity, reliability and resilience.
NAVISP — ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Programme — specifically is seeking prospects for technology demonstrations of mobility tech to support applications such as road, maritime transport and drones. The tech would provide assisted satnav by harnessing image sensors and 3D urban models. The proof-of-concept demonstration projects or national testbeds would facilitate introduction of this technology into commercial products.
Use cases include private or public autonomous transportation in cities, including cars, trams, scooters, bikes, urban ferries, harbors, narrow waterway navigation and future passenger drones.
Reflected satellite navigation signals (multipath) can degrade positioning performance, especially in urban canyons with numerous artificial surfaces. (Image: EUSPA)
The NAVISP project, called a “thematic window,” is titled “Assisted GNSS with Imaging Sensors and 3-D models for Mobility Applications.” The thematic window opened on June 10 and will close on Oct. 31. During its duration, ESA is offering dedicated support to companies interested in participating in the projects and submitting outline proposals.
On July 6, the agency is hosting an online workshop with stakeholders to raise awareness about the initiative and clarify any issues interested companies may have. ESA will present the requirements of the Thematic Window and the application process. The workshop will include presentations from high-level experts covering market perspectives, techniques involved in the use of 3D models and imaging sensors, the state of the art of these technologies and latest advances in visual navigation and artificial intelligence applied to mobility applications.
To register for the July 6 workshop, click here. The workshop agenda is available here.
Swiss company SpacePNT will develop an advanced spaceborne GPS/Galileo receiver to demonstrate for lunar navigation and positioning.
A vision of the NAVIMOON receiver. (Image: SpacePNT)
The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected SpacePNT to develop an advanced spaceborne GPS/Galileo receiver to demonstrate the use of terrestrial satellite navigation signals or real-time and autonomous orbit determination and positioning, navigation and timing (PNT).
The receiver will be carried aboard the ESA-SSTL Lunar Pathfinder spacecraft, which will be placed in orbit around the Moon.
The contract includes the development, qualification and delivery of one proto-flight model (PFM) and two engineering models of the NAVIMOON receiver. NAVIMOON is the high-sensitivity version of SpacePNT’s NAVILEO high-performance GNSS spaceborne receiver.
The NAVIMOON receiver implements high-sensitivity algorithms able to receive and process signals extremely attenuated coming from the spillover (side lobes) around the Earth of signals transmitted by satellite navigation systems. It combines these signals’ measurements with advanced on-board orbital filters to achieve onboard the spacecraft in real time an unprecedented target orbit determination accuracy of 100 meters root-mean-square (rms) at Moon altitude, which is well above the typical accuracy that can be achieved with terrestrial radio ranging that involves the use of costly deep-space-station ground infrastructures.
Given the high interest in Moon exploration and colonization (more than 50 commercial and governmental missions have been announced between now and 2024), it is expected that this NAVIMOON receiver technology will play a significant role in the next decade not only on Earth-Moon transfer orbits, but also to provide enhanced PNT services for users on the Moon. Deployment of a lunar constellation will allow the provision of lunar navigation in Moon-obstructed areas.
For this project, SpacePNT will partner with EECL from the UK. EECL will work as a subcontractor and bring significant space expertise to the electronics design, manufacturing and qualification of the receiver.
Central Italy — already home to an ambitious national autonomous driving research initiative — will be the site of the P-CARS laboratory, intended to certify positioning devices for use within driverless cars.
The new P-CARS laboratory is financed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) through the Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP) of the European Space Agency. The lab will support the goals of EMERGE, a public-private partnership for innovation established in 2018 between Italy’s Ministry of Economic Development, the University of L’Aquila and the mountainous Abruzzo region. Also in the partnership are the RadioLabs research consortium and the Leonardo, Telespazio and Elital companies.
RadioLabs laboratory at the University of L’Aquila, part of Italy’s EMERGE initiative developing autonomous and connected driving solutions. (Photo: RadioLabs)
EMERGE will develop satellite navigation and 5G solutions for connected, cybersecure and autonomous vehicles. The new P-CARS laboratory will be an independent venue for testing devices supporting autonomous and connected driving.
“The idea behind it is to create a research ecosystem, focused on developing, testing, validating and promoting the use of Galileo and other GNSS — along with 5G communications — for connected and autonomous driving,” said Francesco Rispoli, chief satellite operations at Hitachi Rail STS and director general of RadioLabs.
Abruzzo already hosts a manufacturing site for Stellantis’ Fiat Ducato light truck, the Galileo control center at Fucino, and the connected-car center of the University of L’Aquila. P-CARS will be integrated into the university’s Center of Excellence for Geo-localized, Connected and Cyber-secure vehicles.
Italy’s EMERGE initiative is developing GNSS and 5G technology for autonomous and connected driving. (Image: RadioLabs)
“The P-CARS lab will have a 150-square-meter testbed area, beside an existing driving circuit, with the right to use the surrounding open space as well,” Rispoli said. “We’ll be addressing connected autonomous driving functions with GNSS technologies that are safety critical, the key point being that safety must be ensured through standardized test procedures, serving as a trusted third-party to validate specific solutions from companies.”
“This is a valuable response to our national strategy, promoting the adoption of positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) solutions in the fast growing automotive sector by leveraging the latest technologies brought by Galileo and 5G,” said Alberto Tuozzi, head of ASI’s Navigation and Telecommunication Department. “Cross fertilization, cooperation and interaction among the stakeholders will be pursued in the unique ecosystem of the Abruzzo region, bringing together space and non-space stakeholders: ASI, ESA, satellite and automotive industries, universities and research centers.”
Autonomous vehicles will have two distinct sets of inputs: sensors such as cameras, lidar and radar to know the context around the car; and GNSS and inertial measurement systems to know its position. The two sets work independently but come together to ensure safety. (Photo: RadioLabs)
Leveraging its expertise on Galileo and safety applications, ESA will support this initiative in two ways: with technical support and through cooperation and exchanges with other institutions and laboratories at the international level. ESA said P-CARS could become part of a network of centers of excellence in the PNT domain applied to autonomous cars and beyond.
P-CARS will exploit the synergies between the rail and automotive sectors to provide benefits to both. “Car manufacturers produce millions of vehicles and are investing heavily in autonomy and safety systems, but had little experience in this field before they began investing a few years ago,” Rispoli said. “Meanwhile, the rail community has almost 20 years’ experience managing train driving functions with a high degree of autonomy, through the common European Rail Traffic Management System, ERTMS.”
Hitachi Rail and Rio Tinto collaborated to build the world’s first driverless heavy freight train – an automated heavy haul freight transportation system delivering freight from mines to ports in Australia across thousands of kilometers every day. (Photo: Hitachi Rail)
“It is well recognized that ERTMS guarantees the highest safety levels as a connected and autonomous driving system, where the human driver is largely bypassed, but not the volume for mass producing such systems for reducing their cost. By leveraging these two peculiarities it will be possible to get low cost but safety-proven GNSS-based devices,” Rispoli said.
The emphasis will be on connectivity, with the vehicles linked to the infrastructure, including a centralized system of intelligent roads as well as other cars. 5G will enable low-latency communications and be a source of positioning data to extend the performance of GNSS.
P-CARS is being supported through Element 3 of NAVISP, focused on supporting ESA member states’ navigation priorities.
Europe’s Lunar Pathfinder mission to the Moon will carry an advanced satellite navigation receiver to perform the first satellite navigation positioning fix in lunar orbit. The experimental payload marks a preliminary step in an ambitious European Space Agency (ESA) plan to expand reliable satnav coverage — as well as communication links — to explorers around and ultimately on the Moon during this decade.
Due to launch by the end of 2023 into lunar orbit, the public-private Lunar Pathfinder comsat will offer commercial data-relay services to lunar missions, while also stretching the operational limits of satnav signals.
Navigation satellites like Europe’s Galileo constellation are intended to deliver positioning, navigation and timing services to our planet, so most of the energy of their navigation antennas radiates directly towards the Earth disc, blocking its use for users further away in space.
“But this is not the whole story,” explains Javier Ventura-Traveset, leading ESA’s Galileo Navigation Science Office and coordinating ESA lunar navigation activities. “Navigation signal patterns also radiate sideways, like light from a flashlight, and past testing shows these antenna side lobes can be employed for positioning, provided adequate receivers are implemented.”
Just like people or cars on the ground, satellites in low-Earth orbit rely heavily on satnav signals to determine their orbital position, and since ESA proved higher orbit positioning was possible, a growing number of satellites in geostationary orbit today employ satnav receivers.
But geostationary orbit is 35,786 km up, while the Moon is more than ten times further away, at an average distance of 384 000 km. In 2019 however, NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission acquired GPS signals to perform a fix and determine its orbit from 187,166 km away, close to halfway the Earth-Moon distance.
“This successful experimental evidence provides us high confidence since the receiver we will embark on Lunar Pathfinder will have a significantly improved sensitivity, employ both Galileo and GPS signals and will also feature a high-gain satnav antenna,” Javier added.
The main challenge will be overcoming the limited geometry of satnav signals all coming from the same part of the sky, along with the low signal power.
The high-sensitivity receiver’s main antenna was developed through ESA’s General Support Technology Programme, with the receiver’s main unit developed through ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Programme, NAVISP.
The receiver project is led by ESA navigation engineer Pietro Giordano. “The high sensitivity receiver will be able to detect very faint signals, millions of times weaker than the ones received on Earth. The use of advanced on-board orbital filters will allow for unprecedented orbit determination accuracy on an autonomous basis,” Giordano said.
Lunar Pathfinder’s receiver is projected to achieve positioning accuracy of around 100 meters — more accurate than traditional ground tracking.
Once in a stable elliptical orbit over the lunar south pole, Lunar Pathfinder will relay signals from other Moon missions. (Image: ESA)
The availability of satnav will allow the performance of ‘Precise Orbit Determination’ for lunar satellites, said Werner Enderle, head of ESA’s Navigation Support Office. “Traditional orbit determination for lunar orbiting satellites is performed by radio ranging, using deep space ground stations,” Enderle said. “This Lunar Pathfinder demonstration will be a major milestone in lunar navigation, changing the entire approach. It will not only increase spacecraft autonomy and sharpen the accuracy of results, it will also help to reduce operational costs.”
While lunar orbits are often unstable, with low-orbiting satellites drawn off course by the lumpy mass concentrations or mascons making up the Moon, Lunar Pathfinder is planned to adopt a highly stable “frozen” elliptical orbit, focused on the lunar south pole – a leading target for future expeditions. Earth — and its satnav constellations — should remain in view of Lunar Pathfinder for the majority of testing. The main challenge will be overcoming the limited geometry of satnav signals all coming from the same part of the sky, along with the low signal power.
Lunar Pathfinder’s demonstration that terrestrial satnav signals can be employed to navigate in lunar orbits will be an important early step in ESA’s Moonlight initiative. Supported through three ESA Directorates, Moonlight will establish a lunar communication and navigation service.
“Over this coming decade, ESA aims to contribute to building up a common communications and navigation infrastructure for all lunar missions based on dedicated lunar satellites,” explained Bernhard Hufenbach, managing commercialisation and innovation initiatives for space exploration at ESA. “Moonlight will allow to support missions that cannot use Earth satnav signals, such as landers on the far side and is planning to cover the current gap towards the needs expressed by the Global Exploration community, targeting positioning accuracy below 50 meters.”
As well as facilitating lunar exploration, these satnav signals might one day become a tool for science in their own right, used, for example, to perform reflectometry across the lunar surface; sounding the scant dusty exosphere that surrounds the Moon or by providing a common time reference signal across the Moon, to be used for fundamental physics or astronomy experiments.
Javier noted that Lunar Pathfinder’s satnav experiment also will have larger consequences. “This will become the first-ever demonstration of GPS and Galileo reception in lunar orbit, opening the door to a complete way to navigate spacecraft in deep space, enabling human exploration of the Moon,” he said.
Schematic of the GNSS interference detection and analysis system GIDAS. (Image: OHB Digital Solutions)
In September 2020, the first GIDAS monitoring stations were installed at the Czech airport in Brno.
GIDAS — GNSS Interference Detection and Analysis System — enables continuous 24/7 monitoring of the GNSS frequency bands within a defined region to automatically detect, classify and localize intentional interference from jamming and spoofing.
GIDAS can raise the alarm in real time, identify the type of interference, and then pinpoint the location of these dangerous portable devices causing the interference so the authorities can take immediate remedial action. It considerably improves safe and robust operation of GNSS receivers, terminals and applications.
GIDAS was developed by OHB Digital Solutions and Joanneum University of Applied Sciences through ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP).
The system works autonomously and is designed to be easily deployed. It is scalable and flexible; it can be used as a standalone monitoring station or upgraded to a network of stations.
Recent GNSS interference attacks include:
shutdown of navigation equipment at Newark airport
GNSS attacks of North Korea against South Korea
117 incidents within one day at Kaohsiung airport in Taiwan
a U.S. military drone forced to land
a 65-meter yacht drifting off course during field trials
failure of emergency pagers, traffic management systems and ATMs in San Diego caused by U.S. Navy jamming.
“In recent years, GNSS applications have increasingly become the target of intentional interference attacks, since GNSS is widely used in safety and value-critical applications,” said Andreas Lesch, CEO of OHB Digital Solutions. “GIDAS detects, classifies and localizes GNSS interference signals and thus reduces the already existing threat of receiving worse accuracies or even denial of service.”
The GIDAS system user interface helps to pinpoint interference. (Image: OHB Digital Solutions)
GIDAS monitors the GNSS L1/E1 frequency band and reliably detects and classifies intentional and unintentional interference sources using sophisticated algorithms. GIDAS consists of a high performance data processing unit including antenna and RF front-end, and a sophisticated software solution.
GIDAS is able not only to monitor GNSS-based position, velocity and time solutions, it monitors the received signal and baseband processing.
The system is composed of the following software modules:
Software-defined GNSS radio
Position, baseband and C/N0 monitoring
Jammer and spoofing parameter estimation
Localization capabilities through synchronization of several GIDAS systems
Graphical user interface
Initial GIDAS reports show an average of seven GNSS interference events per day. GIDAS was able to successfully classify the signal type in 96% of jamming cases that have occurred.
