Will GALILEO happen?

DR GUENTER HEINRICHS, MIGUEL ROMAY MERINO, JIM DOHERTY, F MICHAEL SWIEK, RONALD R HATCH

ACCORDING to a recent Eurobarometer opinion survey, Europeans are highly positive about the GALILEO program, which aims to develop Europe’s own satellite-based navigation system. The survey indicates that most of EU citizens are aware of the role global positioning systems play in their everyday lives, know about possible applications and are firmly behind the development of such new technologies.

Furthermore, an overwhelming majority consider that Europe should set up an independent navigation system even if this involves securing additional public funds.

“Europeans recognise that GALILEO could have a big impact on their life in the future and they expect greater effort at European level to develop this technology”, said European commission Vice-President, Jacques Barrot, in charge of Transport. “Therefore, we will continue the work with Member States and industry to complete this major European innovation project and get the most out of our investments.”

The Eurobarometer survey questioned around 26 000 citizens all over the European Union on a range of issues linked to GALILEO, and satellite positioning systems in general. The survey has revealed valuable information about EU citizen’s knowledge, attitudes and perceptions related to this new technology. The responses clearly show that most Europeans are highly positive about this major European project. The principal conclusions are as follows:

The survey indicates that the majority of Europeans (68%) are familiar with the concept of satellite-based navigation – with 20% currently using such a system and 15% planning to use one in the future. An overwhelming majority – 80% of respondents – consider that the European Union should set up its own independent system, while only 12% think that there is no need for such a development. 40% have already heard about the European GALILEO project. This ratio reaches 60% in Germany and Luxembourg.

In each Member State, the majority of respondents support the idea of having the EU secure the missing funds. Overall, 63% of respondents consider that the EU should secure the necessary funds to complete the GALILEO project as soon as possible and only 23% are opposed to increase investments. A slight majority also agrees that the abandonment or significant delay of the GALILEO project would harm the image of the European Union (44% consider it harmful while 41% not).

Last but not least, the survey reveals that 71% of European citizens “rather agree” that the EU launches globally important technology projects, even if they require high investments, and only 18% “rather disagree” with EU involvement in such resource-intensive projects.

DR GUENTER HEINRICHS, MIGUEL ROMAY MERINO, JIM DOHERTY, F MICHAEL SWIEK, RONALD R HATCH

Dr Guenter Heinrichs
Director Business,
Development, IFEN
GmbH, Germany
A clear YES, from IFEN’s point of view. The reason for this answer is that Galileo is the largest industrial project ever organised on a European scale and the first infrastructure owned by the EU. Thus, as the first truly European infrastructure project, Galileo has become a lighthouse project in Europe. This means that Europe cannot stop the project in the present stage any more without suffering from a great loss of face and taking politically big damage worldwide. From the industry political point of view, we still believe that Galileo will bring an added value to the user community. Nobody denies today that navigation and its obliged applications will be an integral component of our everyday life in future. The introduction of Galileo as another GNSS has already led to new product developments, which will lead to many new market opportunities also for Small and Medium Enterprises like our company IFEN GmbH. We, however, see a certain uncertainty at the equipment manufacturers and also with the users due to the recent delays in Galileo lately again.

Despite all difficulties in the recent past, at its June 8 meeting the Transport Council of the EU reaffirms the value of Galileo as a key project of the European Union. The council’s backing for Galileo was buttressed by a survey asking 25,664 EU citizens about their opinion of satellite navigation, Galileo, and public funding of a European GNSS. Some 80 percent of respondents endorsed a European system and 63 percent were in favour of it being publicly funded. In our opinion, this is a clear sign also from the EU citizens for an independent European GNSS. Can be held tight summarizing, that Galileo goes on. At the end of the day, Galileo will happen.

Time to inject realism

Miguel Romay Merino
Head of the GNSS
Business Unit of
GMV Aerospace
and Defence S.A.
Even if it seems to be a difficult question, especiallywhen considering the current situation of the Galileo programme, the answer is certainly ‘yes’.

Satellite Navigation is playing a crucial and ever increasing role in our society and it is today quite obvious that multiple Satellite Navigation Systems will be operating simultaneously in the future. Europe has always been very active in the field, and despite all of the hurdles that the Galileo programme may be facing, Europe’s interest in Satellite Navigation is continually growing.

Notwithstanding the difficulties that the Galileo programme is facing, it is also true that significant achievements have been reached during the last years. The development of Galileo at the industrial level is progressing at a good pace, and Critical Design Reviews are already taking place or are planned for the short term for most of the key elements of the Galileo system. Furthermore, the Galileo System Test Bed activities continue to provide better insight as to the system characteristics through the analysis of the first Galileo test satellites (GIOVE-A) experiments, and the planned launch of additional test satellites in the coming months will only increase this understanding.

The roots of the situation that Galileo is suffering today at the programme level can be traced to the very optimistic and enthusiastic decisions made at the start of the Programme:

A difficult balance between Programme objectives, schedule and costs. Very ambitious objectives have been defined for Galileo which have not properly taken into account the limitations of the available budget, as well as the difficulties of achieving them within the planned schedule. The combination of these factors has placed the European industry in a difficult situation.

The management structure of the programme is spread among several strong institutional and industrial groups. This situation has sometimes created confusion due to the fact that there is no clear entity ultimately responsible for the overall programme. This is in part a consequence of another optimistic undertaking: the Public Private Partnership.

It is now time to inject more realism into the Galileo Programme and defi ne a credible programme in terms of objectives, cost and schedule, and establish a clear management structure. The European institutions and industry continue to be strongly motivated for and see Galileo as key to the future of Satellite Navigation growth in Europe. This motivation will drive all partners to overcome these hurdles and set up the basis for transforming the on-going work on Galileo into a complete reality within the next few years.

DR GUENTER HEINRICHS, MIGUEL ROMAY MERINO, JIM DOHERTY, F MICHAEL SWIEK, RONALD R HATCH

PNT infrastructures should be publicly funded

Jim Doherty
IDA, USA
I have long held the following three views: (1) that it would be built, (2) that it would prove more difficult than anticipated, and (3) that there was no business case for a public-private partnership. Thus, one could say that I anticipated some of the issues that seem to be occurring today.

Galileo’s first test satellite is flying today—GIOVE-A—and appears to be performing well. This demonstrates a commitment to the program. As a new satellite development project,

it was truly impressive—about 30 months from concept to operations. If there are technical difficulties with the more complicated GIOVE-B design, this confirms that developing such a system as Galileo is harder than it appears.

Finally, I believe position-navigation time (PNT) infrastructures should be publicly funded, at least to a fundamental level of capability. GPS is successful in supporting safety of- life, quality-of-life, and economic applications because its development and operations have been publicly funded, while applications, including some augmentations, have been privately developed. My belief is based in part on a classic example of a government-provided “free economic good” from my macro economics class—lighthouses in the days of sailing ships.

Although critical for safety and efficiency, no private shipping company would provide the basic system; it was a major cost for the provider, yet available as a free service to all competitors. Hence, it fell to government to provide the system and to reap benefits through tax revenues from a growing economy.

So, I still expect to see Galileo develop, and my greatest hope is that when it does finally arrive it will be fully interoperable with GPS.

Europe’s political will to create Galileo is clear

F. Michael Swiek
Executive Director
United States GPS
Industry Council,
Washington DC
Satellite navigation is hard. It requires complex infrastructures, huge amounts of initial capital, large budgets for sustainment, and must deliver its services with near 100% reliability and stability. Even though the technology has been known for about 30 years, and commercial markets established for nearly 20, there is still only a single fully populated and continuously operational global satellite navigation system – the US GPS system, the de facto global standard.

If the ability to reap profits from operating a satnav constellation was easy, then everybody, or at least a few somebody’s would already be doing it.

What the Europeans are trying to do with Galileo is daunting technologically, frightening financially, and maddening by the complex layers of intra-European political hurdles they face. They should be admired for their courage to attempt it, commended for the progress made thus far, and perhaps pitied for the seemingly endless stream of pitfalls and barriers that have emerged from political, financial and engineering realms.

Yet they press on. Europe’s political will to create Galileo is clear, even if the resources at times are not. I am almost sure that something called Galileo will happen. A better question as to whether there will be a Galileo, is, perhaps, “What Galileo will there be ?” Galileo is a complex concept of satnav infrastructure and services for public sector, private sector and general use, all overseen by an equally complex multinational administrative tangle.

Galileo’s first vision of a self sustaining commercial venture through a public private partnership has now given way to the more realistic concept of public funded infrastructure. So, which operational elements of Galileo will eventually emerge, and on what schedule ?

Galileo can and most likely will provide a valuable supplement and augmentation to the foundation already established by GPS. Certain elements will provide Europe with the degree of sovereignty and control it desires over satnav within its borders. If Galileo is to be accepted in the commercial world, it cannot stand as an island, but must be seen as openly compatible and interoperable with GPS, with clearly open standards and non-discriminatory access to market opportunities by non-European players.

Galileo will neither replace nor displace GPS from European or global markets, but has the potential to complement and extend what GPS has and can offer to users in public, private sector and personal applications and services. Galileo will most likely not emerge in full grown form, offering its complete originally intended plate of services.
Instead, only those parts that make sense in terms of public need and commercial market acceptance will survive.

DR GUENTER HEINRICHS, MIGUEL ROMAY MERINO, JIM DOHERTY, F MICHAEL SWIEK, RONALD R HATCH

Roadblocks, primarily of a political nature

Ronald R. Hatch
NavCom
Technology, Inc.
Yes, I believe Galileo will happen. I will be very disappointed if it does not. Yes, there are major roadblocks,primarily of a political nature.

It will be difficult to reach agreements with all of the states, businesses and organizations involved. However, I believe that too much has been accomplished and the goal too important to the European community to allow it to falter. The prestige of building the system and the dependence upon a foreign system of navigation otherwise, both argue for a continuation of Galileo. The European public also favors a continuation according to surveys. Yes, it will be delayed, but I think the system will be built. Technically, Galileo has much to offer. Receivers that will track both GPS and Galileo signals are easily built. With two common frequencies at L1 and L5/E5A the diversity of signals will allow operation of high precision receivers in much more restricted environments. In addition, for very high precision RTK implementations the third frequency on both the next generation GPS satellites and the Galileo satellites will dramatically improve the ability to resolve the whole cycle of carrier phase ambiguity. Though the middle frequency is not common, the Galileo E6 signal is actually a better choice than the GPS L2 signal for ease in simultaneously resolving ionospheric effects and determining the whole cycle ambiguities. Again, it would be a great disappointment if Galileo does not happen.