Global satellite navigation system Galileo has a ‘huge downstream...

March 3-5 Galileo Application Days, where about 32 cutting-edge satellite applications will be demonstrated live, the European Commission said. Applications are a main driver of the system, Porteros said. The goal of deploying Galileo isn’t the infrastructure itself but providing a signal in space to enable services and applications, he said Wednesday. Porteros urged the EU to commit in the short term to an exploitation study and an applications action plan which addresses regulatory issues and how best to maximize the returns of Galileo and the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service. The EU must also assure industry it will do its best not to miss windows of opportunity for authentication-based services development, mass-market penetration and use of the system by the defense community and interoperability with the U.S. Global Positioning Service, he said. Galileo has two satellites in orbit testing critical technologies, said Rene Oosterlinck, director of the Galileo program and navigation-related activities. The navigation signals are working well but they have many errors which are being corrected, he said. Those errors contain information that could be spun off for useful applications and services, he said. Orbit determination errors showing a satellite’s orbit is changing may provide information on space weather and the earth’s gravitational pull, he said. Analyzing clock errors could help prove Albert Einstein’s theories or lead to quantum communications, Oosterlinck said. Signal speed is affected by vapor in the air, so errors can be used to evaluate water in the atmosphere, he said. Reflected signals offer information on the object doing the reflecting, such as soil or waves, he said. Earthquakes are reflected in the atmosphere so satellites could assess what happened under the earth, Oosterlinck said. New tools made possible by Galileo will bring social, environmental, safety and economic benefits to citizens and deliver downstream market revenue “our industry so urgently needs,” said Industry and Entrepreneurship Commissioner Antonio Tarjani.