with different technical solutions.
A navigation system is a critical and
significant component of any global
space policy.
The first Galileo satellite, the Galileo In Orbit Validation Elements-A
(GIOVE-A) test satellite, began transmitting signals in January 2006, and
the European Space Agency (ESA) has
released the technical details of the
signals transmitted by the first Galileo
test satellite, allowing receiver manufacturers and research institutions
to use a real signal for research and
development. The GIOVE-A Signal-in-Space Interface Control Document
will allow any user to build a receiver
able to track the signals, interpret the
navigation message and compute the
distance between the satellite and the
receiver.
In March, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL), which built GIOVE-A, received a contract from ESA to
manufacture a second test satellite.
GIOVE-A2 will be based on GIOVE-A
and will maintain the frequency filing
for 27 more months and facilitate further development of ground equipment.
two satellite-based navigation systems
for the high-precision positioning of aircraft,
ships, trucks and other objects are operational
today: the U.S. gPS constellation and Russia’s
global navigation Satellite System. the two
networks were developed primarily for military
use, while europe wants to base its galileo
system around civilian control.
The satellite also will carry upgrades
that will allow for testing of the common L1 open service signals recommended by the European Union and
the United States. These signals will
provide free position and timing information to users.
“Navigation will be more and more
critical in terms of commercial and
institutional applications,” Bouvier
says. “This should not be seen as
competition between the U.S. and
Europe. We think navigation is just
a critical component of any long-term
space policy. It makes a lot of sense
for Europe. The two systems, GPS
and Galileo, will be interoperable and
create added value for users all over
the world.”
Beyond Galileo, GMES
“Europe continues to be very strong in
space science, and it has some pretty
ambitious plans going forward in the
exploration area,” says Reid. “On the
space science side, one of the big
headline items that is coming up very
shortly is the BepiColombo mission to
Mercury. That represents considerable
technical challenges, not least of which
is in the area of high-power electric
propulsion solution that will be required
for such a mission and obviously that
is of key interest to QinetiQ. On the
exploration side, ESA has a vision to
send probes and ultimately manned
missions to Mars. I think that these will
represent huge technical challenges
and organizational challenges.”
In terms of innovative companies to
watch in the European satellite arena,
Piotr Kocel, a space analyst at Frost
and Sullivan, highlights RapidEye.
“RapidEye are to my knowledge the
first geospatial intelligence company
which is launching its own satellite
constellation,” he says. “They have procured five microsatellites from SSTL
— for really peanuts when you speak of
launching five satellites and operating
them and developing the ground station
network. They plan to offer that commercially by the end of 2007. It is the
first implementation and the first Earth
observation company to take advantage
of micro satellite platforms.”
ESA also has a living planet program designed to discover more about
the dynamics of Earth. One of the main
missions is CryoSat, a radar altimetry
mission with a nominal life of three
years intended to determine variations in the thickness of the Earth’s
continental ice sheets and marine ice
cover. CryoSat’s primary objective is
to test the prediction of thinning arctic
ice due to global warming. There also
is the GOCE mission, which aims to
provide the unique data set required
to formulate global and regional models of the Earth’s gravity field to a high
spatial resolution and accuracy. It will
also advance research in the fields of
steady-state ocean circulation and
