Galileo, now match for aviation

In civil aviation, particularly for essential phases comparable to ultimate approaches, navigation methods should be extraordinarily dependable. The Worldwide Civil Aviation Group (ICAO) defines the strict necessities that methods must fulfil for use in these so-called Security-of-Life operations, the place a malfunction of the system would result in main human or environmental catastrophes.

Galileo was by no means designed to adjust to these rigorous integrity requirements as Europe already had EGNOS, a devoted Security-of-Life system for navigation. EGNOS ‘augments’ GPS indicators for essential operations in aviation, maritime navigation, agriculture and extra. However in 2016, ESA joined forces with the European Fee (EC) and the EU Company for the House Programme (EUSPA) to raise Galileo’s reliability and make it match for civil aviation, as a standalone assist system throughout en route and augmented by EGNOS at take-off and touchdown.

With 18 satellites already orbiting the Earth in 2016, and the deployment of the rest in full swing, redesigning the entire system was not an possibility, so the crew buckled down with versatile considering and a artistic thoughts, in true ESA type, to push the boundaries of engineering.

Galileo, robust since born

Since Galileo’s first place repair in 2013 and because the constellation grew, it was clear to ESA engineers that it was a sturdy navigation system, already assembly and exceeding all expectations. “Galileo was not even in service but when from the EGNOS crew we steered it needs to be used for civil aviation – that’s how assured we had been about its efficiency,” remembers ESA Head of EGNOS and SBAS Division Didier Flament.

With treasured assist from European business, most notably Thales Alenia House and Airbus Defence and House, the crew set to assemble proof of Galileo’s robustness and reliability. They scrutinised almost a million in-service hours, wanting carefully at each anomaly and its magnitude, period, root trigger and affect. They discovered that solely six occasions within the historical past of Galileo exceeded the requirements set by ICAO, and none of them had been affecting greater than a single satellite tv for pc at a time.

Modify, retune, strengthen

The subsequent step was to switch the system to mitigate the results of the (only a few) potential malfunctions. The one leverage was the intricate floor phase, because the satellites had been already in orbit. “The answer was not apparent in any respect! We threw many and various concepts on the desk once we had been searching for the appropriate answer, from including extra stations to utilizing information from the anticipated Excessive Accuracy Service,” explains Galileo Security-of-Life System Engineer Santiago Perea.

Lastly, ESA engineers devised a set of strategic actions to enhance the detection of defective measurements by including boundaries within the floor phase and to inform receivers to exclude these faulty readings from their calculations. “Ultimately, not a single infrastructure or {hardware} ingredient was touched; we improved the monitoring and notification capabilities of Galileo purely by retuning the software program within the floor phase,” explains Stefan Wallner, Head of Galileo Sign-in-House Engineering Unit.

Geared up with a file filled with proof of Galileo’s reliability and having supplied a commitments checklist to EUSPA, the Galileo partnership approached ICAO, who lastly endorsed Galileo for Security-of-Life civil aviation operations in March 2023.

Safer skies with European satellite tv for pc navigation

With this achievement, ESA is altering the sport for aviation, as now European satellite tv for pc navigation can information each section of a flight.

In sensible phrases, which means plane producers can now construct receivers which autonomously monitor Galileo (along with GPS) sign integrity with out the necessity for exterior corrections or fault detection to assist non-critical phases of flight, together with elements of the ascent, descent and enroute. As well as, Galileo is now able to be augmented by the brand new model of EGNOS to assist essential operations like touchdown, the place satellite tv for pc navigation methods like Galileo or GPS alone can’t provide sufficient reliability.

“This technological achievement has been doable because of ESA’s extraordinary in-house expertise and to the superb efficiency of Galileo: the system has proven excessive flexibility and flexibility to stick to demanding requirements it was by no means designed for,” remarks ESA’s Head of Galileo System Engineering Jörg Hahn.

The long-standing cooperation between ESA with its companions EC and EUSPA, in addition to with the European Union Aviation Security Company (EASA), air navigation service suppliers and different nationwide authorities has additionally been essential on this success story. 

The second era of the Galileo programme, now beneath improvement, will take a step additional: a brand new facility will generate an Integrity Help Message that can inform the person the system may be trusted. An engineering prototype is already testing this new function at ESTEC, ESA’s technical coronary heart within the Netherlands. All developments go hand in hand with the implementation of EGNOS V3, able to augmenting not solely GPS but in addition Galileo, making European and world skies even safer. 

About Galileo

Galileo is at present the world’s most exact satellite tv for pc navigation system, serving near 4 billion customers across the globe since coming into Open Service in 2017. All smartphones offered within the European Single Market at the moment are assured Galileo-enabled. As well as, Galileo is making a distinction throughout the fields of rail, maritime, agriculture, monetary timing companies and rescue operations.

Galileo is a flagship programmes of the EU House Programme, managed and funded by the European Union. Since its inception, ESA leads the design, improvement and qualification of the house and floor methods, in addition to procuring launches. EUSPA (the EU Company for the House Programme) acts because the service supplier of Galileo, overseeing the market and software wants and shutting the loop with customers.

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