The success of the U.S. GPS satellite navigation system has generated
lots of competition. But so far, these other efforts have had rough going. A
European consortium is going forward with its own version of GPS, called
Galileo, despite growing costs and technical problems. Initially, Galileo was
to be funded with private money. But the costs climbed beyond the most
optimistic estimates of future income, so now Galileo will be paid for by tax
dollars, as was GPS, and the competing Russian and Chinese systems.
only one Galileo satellite has been launched, simply for research, although the
original plan called for four to be up there by now, to provide a sufficient
number of birds for a test system. As it is, a second test satellite is to be
launched this month. Originally, all 30
satellites were to be up by this year, but now the target date is 2014. China
has offered to invest in Galileo, and the Europeans are happy to have the help.
Galileo will cost over $11 billion when completed, and the fifteen nations of
the European Space Agency (ESA) have put in several hundred million dollars already.
This however, is more than twice what the system was originally expected to
about because the Europeans didn't like being dependent on an American system,
and don't believe the Russians will be able to keep their GLONASS system
viable. If Galileo becomes operational, the European nations will pay for it,
but anyone can use it. Dual signal (GPS and Galileo) receivers won't cost much
more (maybe 20 percent more) than GPS receivers do. Having two separate sets of
signals makes for more reliable and accurate receivers. Also, the way Galileo
is being set up, it will provide improved reliability in higher latitudes and
in built up areas.
answer to GPS, GLONASS, was at full strength (24 satellites) shortly after the
Cold War ended (1995). But the end of the Cold War meant the end of the regular
financing for GLONASS. Maintaining the system meant launching replacement
satellites every 5-7 years. By the end of 2002, only seven GLONASS birds were
still operational. However, a series of launches in 2003 increased the number
of active satellites to twelve, and that went to 18 by the end of 2007. Russia
plans to put eight more GLONASS satellites in orbit this year. That would
expand the system to 24 navigation satellites. Russia plans to have the system
fully operational next year. Right now, it is active for most of Russia. With
24 birds, it will cover the globe and be a competitor for GPS.
The money for
GLONASS is coming from a Russian government that does not want to be dependent
on the American Department of Defense controlled GPS system. But the money is
only there because of high oil prices. Most GLONASS receivers in use are
actually combined GPS/GLONASS receivers. Russia will have to put billions of
dollars into GLONASS over the next few years to get the system fully
operational, and then spend even more money to maintain the satellite network.
a satellite navigation system called BeiDou. Think of this system as GPS light.
BeiDou only covers East Asia, and not even all of China. But it covers the
areas along the coast, and Taiwan. The BeiDou system is less accurate than GPS,
slower, but it does allow two way traffic. This is useful for sending short
messages (up to 120 Chinese characters so, about a hundred words). Sort of IM
(Instant Messaging) class stuff. The system can only handle a few hundred
thousand users, but that would be sufficient for the number of Chinese troops
involved in any major operation. BeiDou also suffers some reliability problems,
and is apparently very vulnerable to jamming and spoofing. Because of all that,
it is believed that BeiDou is just a first generation system. A training
system, one where China learns the ins and outs of building satellite
No one has
found a way to make a buck off a network of navigation satellites. At least not
directly There are plenty of ideas, but no one has yet turned any of those
ideas into cash.