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"Pathfinders" Take Shape For Galileo, Europe's GPS

Posted by kdawson on from the dodging-the-space-junk dept.

oliderid sends along a BBC report on progress toward Europe's home-grown GPS system. The Galileo concept will get an initial test via four "pathfinder" satellites that will be the first in the Galileo constellation. Galileo is intended to be complementary with the US GPS system — when all 30 Galileo birds are flying, a receiver with both GS and Galileo capability should enjoy 1-meter positional accuracy, vs. the several meters available through GPS alone, according to the article. There's a video tour of the facility where the pathfinders are being built. "After all the wrangling, the delays, and the furor over cost, Europe's version of GPS is finally starting to take shape. Due for launch in pairs in late 2010 and early 2011, the 'pathfinders' will form a mini-constellation in the sky. They will transmit the navigation signals that demonstrate the European system can become a reality."

3 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Funding by Zoxed · · Score: 3, Informative

    > How are they getting funding? As recently as yesterday I was reading about how it was pretty much an orphaned project because no one wanted to buy what was already available for free (albeit less reliably).

    I can not remember the full story, but the industry funding arguments dragged along for years, and in the end the EU took over funding of the project (it was too high profile to fail !!).

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_(satellite_navigation)

  2. Re:Funding by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 3, Informative

    Also, China and Russia have plans to develop their own GPS systems as well. This indicates that there is plenty of squabbling behind the scenes.

  3. Re:Funding by mirix · · Score: 3, Informative

    No, it covers almost all of earth. A few years ago you would be more correct though.

    It's short a few satellites for whole world coverage right now. Now that Russia has oil dollars running in, the whole world should be back up in a year or so... they've been launching satellites quite frequently the last few years.

    Here is a map of current coverage.. basically everywhere except Antarctica.
    map A few pieces are missing here and there, but it's a far cry from "just russia".

    --
    Sent from my PDP-11