This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace.
– Colossus: The Forbin Project
The European Commission (EC) is dual-sourcing its Galileo satellite navigation satellites, acquiring the spacecraft in competitive batches, in a manner similar to the U.S. Global Positioning System.
The Commission selected a team led by OHB System of Germany to build a first batch of 14 full-operating-capability (FOC) satellites, which will allow Europe to provide global high-precision, guaranteed-performance timing and position location services to complement those supplied by GPS.
The European Galileo system hopes to move to global coverage by 2012-13, which would require some 30 satellites. No indication of when the next batch of spacecraft will be procured. Europe’s Galileo is similar (and competitive with) the U.S. Global Positioning System, the Russian Glonass system, and the Chinese Beidou navigation satellites.
The EC will launch from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana and awarded the initial system support service contract to the Italian arm of Thales Alenia Space.
The first 14 Galileo satellites, together with the four in-orbit validation (IOV) spacecraft currently under construction, is expected to permit Galileo to offer an initial operating capability by the first half of 2014. Like the US GPS, low-accuracy services will be free and open to everyone, with the high-accuracy capabilities restricted to the military and paying commercial users.
Meanwhile, a Chinese Long March rocket hauled a new navigation satellite into orbit on Saturday, marking the first space launch of the year for the world’s space programs.
The Chinese Beidou navigation satellite (Compass), was placed on a trajectory toward geosynchronous orbit, this Saturday. It’s the third member of the second-generation Beidou constellation. Two spacecraft were launched to medium Earth orbit and geosynchronous orbit in 2007 and 2009, respectively.
China plans to launch another 10 satellites in the next two years – enough to cover China and its adjacent regions by the end of 2010 or early 2011, and expand into a global network by 2020. China says Beidou services will be available at no charge to civilians with positioning accuracy of about 10 meters, or 33 feet.
China eventually expects to launch 35 Beidou satellites, allowing the system to have a global reach similar to the U.S. Global Positioning System,
Russian’s GLONASS is the satellite navigation system, developed by the former Soviet Union and now operated for the Russian government by the Russian Space Forces.
Their constellation was completed in 1995, but the system rapidly fell into disrepair with the collapse of the Russian economy, says Wikipedia. Beginning in 2001, Russia committed to restoring the system, and in recent years brought in the Indian government as a partner, and accelerated the program with a goal of restoring global coverage by 2009.
As of 12 January 2010, the GLONASS system consists of 22 satellites, of which 16 are operational, 3 of which are in maintenance, 2 of which are in commissioning phase and one is in decommissioning phase. The system requires 18 satellites for continuous navigation services covering the entire territory of the Russian Federation, and 24 satellites to provide services worldwide.
The United States GPS system consists of a minimum of 24 operational satellites in six circular orbits 20,200 km (10,900 NM) above the earth at an inclination angle of 55 degrees with a 12 hour period. On January 11, 2010, a reconfiguration of the Air Force run GPS constellation was announced with a new 24+3 or “Expandable 24” system.
Moving three existing GPS satellites to new orbit locations is expected to have a profound effect on GPS capabilities for all civil, commercial, and military users worldwide. The plan will significantly alter the current configuration, which consists of 30 GPS satellites in MEO.
However, many of the additional satellites are currently flown in tandem, side by side, with considerably older satellites and effectively limit the constellation geometry to that of 24 satellites.
“The [24+3] initiative will take up to 24 months to fully implement as satellites are repositioned within the constellation based on constellation health. The beneficial impact to all GPS users, including civilian users, will be slowly realized during that time period. Over the next two years, the number of GPS satellites in view from any point on earth will increase, potentially increasing accuracy of GPS receivers.”
