Published by krisse at 20:44 BST, May 7th 2008
The European Space Agency recently made contact with Giove-B, the second test model for its Galileo series of navigational satellites, with the whole thirty satellite constellation due to be completed by 2013. What makes this relevant to the mobile device world is a statement by ESA on the effectiveness of Galileo combined with the existing GPS system: "Higher accuracy in challenging environments where multipath and interference are present, and deeper penetration for indoor navigation."
In case you're wondering, Galileo will use a similar transmission standard to GPS, so you will be able to use both systems on the same hardware.
Of course 2013 is five years away, which is an eternity in the mobile electronics world. It is possible that by then GPS phones will be far more sensitive than they are now, but even so it will presumably still be an advantage to have two constellations to refer to instead of just one.
More accurate indoor satellite navigation could have implications for pedestrian navigation, for example shopping centres might include their indoor layout on navigational maps.
Whether there's a real technical need for a second satnav system is debatable, but the geopolitical need seems to be in the driving seat. Many in the European Union government (the EU are paying for Galileo) want to make themselves seem important, and present themselves as an alternative to the US on the global stage. At the moment America is the only country to operate a satellite navigation constellation, and this is why people use "GPS" and "satellite navigation" interchangably, even though GPS is just the American system.
There's also a military significance in Galileo: At present the US government may selectively distort the GPS signal in regions where they don't want the enemy to be able to use satellite navigation, but if Galileo goes online the US will have to convince the EU to co-operate in any such distortion.
And that's not all. There's a third sat nav system on the way too, the rather unfortunately-named GLONASS, which was built by the Soviet Union (later Russia) but left to rot when the money ran out. Now that Russia is on the way up again economically, the system is being restored with a target date of 2010 for global coverage. It will be compatible with Galileo and GPS, and Russia has said the system will be open to the public, so future mobile devices will have three constellations to receive signals from instead of just the current one.
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Categories: Miscellaneous
Platforms: General
| Well, I already have a Holox BlueTooth GPS that works indoors at the back of a room with only a closed window at the far end - it tracks up to 54 satellites at once, and goes for about £18 on ebay. I'm not sure how Galileo could improve upon this |
| I think by the time Galileo is up and running we'll see chipsets embedded in phones that are sat-system agnostic, and can track whatever is available out of GPS |
| It is however, DEFINITELY a good idea not to rely on a single American controlled system, so more power to alternatives. |
| lock on wont be instant, the constellations are broadcast every 30 seconds, which is why most GPS receivers advertise an average 40-60 second lock on time. A second system would at most halve the lock on time. |
| The european space agency is NOT the european union |
| Unless theres evidence to the contrary, it may very well be funded by countrys all over the world. |
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