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The four Galileo satellites launched on December 12 have successfully transitioned from Early Orbit Phase to In Orbit Testing.

On December 12, four Galileo satellites started their journey on an Ariane 5 rocket from the European Spaceport in Kourou. Shortly after leaving the rocket, the satellites – named Nicole, Zofia, Alexandre and Irina – reached stable configuration and established first contact with Earth.

This launch marked the first time that the European GNSS Agency (GSA) was responsible for the Early Orbit Phase (EOP) of the mission. EOP is one of the most important phases of a space mission as it positions the satellites into the correct orbits and gradually switches on and tests the first elements. For example, just days after the launch, the four satellites were transitioned from sun acquisition mode to Earth tracking mode, also known as nominal operational mode (NOM). In this mode, the satellites point to the Earth with all antennas oriented towards the ground.

Next, the satellites began moving to their destination Galileo orbit with a set of very precise manoeuvres, with Nicole and Zofia reaching their final target orbits on February 6, and Alexandre and Irina following suit on February 14. With all four satellites in their final slots, EOP came to an end on February 26.

Time for In Orbit Testing

The quartet of Galileo satellites are now starting the In Orbit Testing phase, a comprehensive characterization and evaluation of the satellites’ behaviour in space. Although extensive tests were performed before launch, the space environment cannot be fully represented on ground, and thus extra testing in space is necessary. This includes transmitting test navigation signals, whose performance will be carefully monitored and tested. The performance tests ensure that the satellites’ in-orbit performance is in line with the predictions made during on-ground testing. 

Once the performance testing is concluded and deemed satisfactory, the satellites will enter into service as part of the Galileo constellation – bringing the total number of satellites to 22.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

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Europe’s space policy is already delivering results for businesses and citizens. The European Parliament held a conference on 6 March, on how agriculture is the new frontier. The event was hosted by Eric Andrieu MEP, who is the S&D (The Progressives) co-ordinator for Agriculture and Rural Development.

MEP Andrieu believes that Europe should be more ambitious in making use of its extensive data and space infrastructure to drive innovation in the farming sector. This is why he organised this conference with MEP Peillon.

“Space offers the possibility for transformative change in agriculture and wider benefits to rural communities. Europe’s space data and services are world class – and often world leading. The next step is to harness this data and develop applications to optimise Europe’s agriculture industry, making it more precise, sustainable and cost effective,” MEP Peillon said.

The conference comes at a decisive moment. The European Commission has fired the starting shot for the revision of the Common Agricultural Policy post-2020. MEPs say they want a more forward-looking policy; one that offers the opportunity to release the full potential of space.

EGNOS, Galileo and Copernicus

DG GROW Deputy-Director General Pierre Delsaux, who is responsible for European Space Policy, underlined the progress that has already been made: “With Galileo we will have high-accuracy precision within 20 cm, which is extremely accurate. If you apply this to agriculture equipment, it would improve systems. Our Earth Observation system, Copernicus, gives a massive amount of information on the situation of the land – the composition, and where you need to put seeds and fertilizers. We need to combine EGNOS, Galileo and Copernicus to develop services that are useful to agriculture and other sectors.”

Hervé Pillaud, a farmer himself and expert on digital farming, leads a network of French farmers who are using space and digital technologies – he also collaborates with start-ups to help them design the technologies of the future.

Pillaud spoke at the conference and called on Europe to do a better job of incorporating in the future agriculture policy: “A future CAP must be better than today’s. The European Commission must help farmers to make better use of the tools and possibilities available. We need an agricultural system that can feed its citizens, but is equally conscious of environmental concerns, such as carbon capture and the use of renewable energy.”

Pillaud highlighted many areas where better data and tools could make a real difference. He underlined the role of Europe’s space services in mitigating risk: “Risk is an enormous question! Satellite information that allows us to anticipate events are more important as climatic conditions are less predictable. This will help farmers to reduce losses.”

Farming by Satellite Prize

Pillaud also welcomed the launch of the Farming by Satellite Prize targeted at young people: “The involvement of young people in finding solutions is absolutely necessary. The digital generation will not ask the questions in the same way.”

Delsaux added: “The Farming by Satellite Prize will generate new ideas and innovation. We want students from everywhere in Europe to ask what we can develop as new services, strategies and processes to make agriculture more efficient. We need new ideas and imagination. We don’t know what exactly the benefits will be, this is a path on which we cannot go back – it is clear that space will be more fundamental in the future. The farmers are also fully aware of the potential benefits, but we need to keep up and move fast.”

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

Whether it is dual frequency chipsets or new smartphones, European GNSS was behind many of the technology announcements made during Mobile World Congress 2018.

As the world’s premiere mobile technology trade show, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) is traditionally technology driven. But, according to Stuart Carlaw, Chief Research Officer at ABI Research, this is starting to change. “The mobile community continues to peddle technology rather than offer holistic solutions,” he says. “But enterprises want solutions, not an alphabet soup of three letter abbreviations.”

Answering this call for solutions are the GNSS mass market innovations on display in Barcelona during MWC 2018. Whether it is chipsets, smartphones, drones, robots or autonomous vehicles, most depend on GNSS – including Galileo – to translate this technology into actual solutions.  

Here we look at the role European GNSS plays in some of the announcements coming out of MWC 2018. 

Dual frequency chipsets

Although much of the news coming from chipset manufacturers like Intel, Qualcomm and Mediatek was about 5G connectivity plans, several also launched new dual frequency chipsets. Traditionally, mobile, location-based applications have been powered by single-frequency GNSS receivers operating under stringent battery power and footprint constraints. When using a dual frequency chipset, however, mass market devices benefit from better accuracy, ionosphere error cancellation, improved code tracking pseudorange estimates and better multipath resistance – among other benefits.

“With connected cars and autonomous vehicles quickly becoming a reality, there is a clear need for accurate and reliable positioning information,” explains GSA Deputy Head of Market Development Fiammetta Diani. “Dual frequency chipsets are the answer for these types of safety-critical applications.” 

Following Broadcom’s recent launch of the BCM47755 – the world’s first mass-market, dual frequency GNSS receiver device for smartphones – several other manufacturers followed suit by announcing their own dual frequency chipsets at MWC. For example, uBlox launched its F9 chip for industrial and automotive applications. The chip uses GNSS signals in multiple frequency bands (L1/L2/L5) to correct ionosphere-caused positioning errors and deliver a fast time to first fix. By supporting all GNSS constellations, including Galileo, the chipset improves performance by increasing the number of satellites visible at any given time. Last but not least, thanks to on-chip Real Time Kinematic (RTK) technology, the F9 also offers improved levels of accuracy.

Not to be outdone, STM came to MWC to promote a dual-frequency chip dedicated to automotive safety-critical applications. Being developed as part of the GSA-funded ESCAPE project, the Galileo-enabled chip is being enhanced to receive and process the upcoming Galileo Open Service authenticated signals – a key differentiator of European GNSS.

New Galileo-enabled smartphones

Since 2016, when the first Galileo-enabled smartphone was launched, more and more manufacturers have started to include Galileo in their flagship models. “A growing number of premium smartphones are integrating Galileo in order to provide users with better accuracy and availability, especially in difficult environments,” says Justyna Redelkiewicz, GSA’s Market Development Officer in charge of LBS.

In-line with this trend, both Sony and Samsung launched new, Galileo-enabled phones during MWC 2018. Sony’s new flagship Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact smartphones and Samsung’s S9 and S9+ models are each equipped with a Galileo-enabled processor. All four phones are also shipped with Android Oreo 8.0, which gives users access to GNSS raw data.

The GSA highlighted the growing role of European GNSS in smartphones by having a range of Galileo-enabled devices on display at their booth. Visitors who had a smartphone that was already using Galileo received a free ‘I #UseGalileo’ t-shirt to commemorate their MWC experience. 

Want to learn more about the role of European GNSS in drone applications and services? Stay tuned as our EGNOS, Galileo and Drones series takes a behind-the-scenes look at each of these projects in the coming weeks.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).