4 questions on Galileo, the european competitor to GPS, finally in service – RTL.fr

Credit : Esa

The Galileo system is entered into service on Thursday, December 15

by The writing of RTL , With AFP published the 15/12/2016 22:20

seventeen years late, a few billion chance, but, in the end, the culmination of a project to more than 10 billion euros for Europe will have an independent access to space. Europe has launched on Thursday 15 December, the first services of its satellite navigation system, Galileo, with the promise of a more accurate location, reserved for the time to the few owners of compatible equipment.

“After years of intense work, we are ready to announce the initial services of Galileo. Galileo is launched!”, said the european commissioner for Industry, Elzbieta Bienkowska. Ms. Bienkowska and Maros Sefcovic, european commissioner for Energy, symbolically launched Galileo at a ceremony in Brussels, pressing a button after a countdown shouted out by the audience.

1 – Who can already take advantage of it ?

Only a handful of privileged owners of the few smartphones that are compatible with Galileo – the first, the Aquaris X5 More manufacturer’s Spanish BQ, is on the market since the fall – can, for the moment, pick up the new signal. These pioneers can make free use of the european system to find a pharmacy, the best route to go on holiday or adjust their stride to the marathon. “I am officially a pioneer of Galileo with my BqAquarisX5Plus. Goodbye GPS !”, has tweeted a French user shortly after the announcement.

The connected objects are also more numerous to go through satellite to communicate, as the patch that allows you to locate patients with Alzheimer’s disease or the tag to find its parking place.

But for a mass influx of products that are compatible with Galileo, it will have to be a little patient. “We need companies to invest and innovate with Galileo. Create new applications, new services,” said Ms. Bienkowska. In 2018, according to Brussels, all new vehicles sold in Europe will be equipped with sensors Galileo. “Geolocation is at the heart of the ongoing digital revolution with new services that transform our daily lives”, said Mr. Sefcovic.

2 – What are the challenges for Europe ?

“About 10% of european GDP now depends on positioning systems by satellites, and by 2030 this percentage could rise to about 30%,” according to the French space agency, Cnes. “It is a real field of applications, which open to the private sector, which will benefit all of the citizens,” said the president of Cnes, Jean-Yves Le Gall. “It is here that lies the real challenge, to find Galileo in each bag, in each vehicle, in order to be able to take advantage of the major advances that offer the service,” he added. Europe is not in pole position as the american GPS, the Russian Glonass or Beidou chinese are already working.

3 – That makes it more than the GPS ?

european service wants to be more efficient with positioning accuracy, of the order of one meter, greater than that of its competitors. In addition, a paid service will provide a location to within a few centimetres. Other advanced, for the operations of search and rescue : a distress call will be visible, in real time, from any place of the globe. “Today, it takes at least three hours for a person lost at sea or in the mountains to be detected” as with Galileo, it will only take “10 minutes”, said Lucia Caudet, spokesperson of the european Commission.

In addition, the signal that europe will be dated in a few billionths of a seconds (a useful service for banks, insurances, energy providers). It will also be authenticated, a guarantee of safety, in particular for future autonomous vehicles in the face of the potential dangers of cyber-attacks remotely.

4 – When will it be fully operational ?

At start-up, the accuracy of Galileo will not be optimal and the signal will not be available all the time. It will have to wait until 2020 – by which time about thirty satellites (compared to fifteen active today) will be in orbit – so that the european system can offer its best accuracy on the whole globe. Galileo is compatible with GPS, the user will be able to access the two systems simultaneously and to improve the quality and reliability of its position.

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