Galileo-Navigationssystem

Earlier this week, GIOVE-A successfully transmitted its first navigation message, containing the information needed by user receivers to calculate their position. Prior to reaching this milestone, the satellite had been broadcasting only the data needed for measuring the receiver-to-satellite distance.
 
The first Galileo navigation message was created by the navigation signal generator unit on board GIOVE-A, using content prepared by the GIOVE Mission Segment. This week-one navigation message was uplinked to GIOVE-A on 2 May from the Guildford ground station operated by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (United Kingdom) and then transmitted from the spacecraft to the users. The objective of the test was to demonstrate an end-to-end link between the Mission Segment and the user receivers. The navigation message is being generated for demonstration purposes only – no service guarantee is provided.
 
The complete radio transmission from GIOVE-A carries a navigation signal and a navigation message. The navigation signal contains the information needed to accurately measure the distance from the satellite to the user receiver. The navigation message provides the timing and spacecraft orbit data needed to calculate the time and exact position of the satellite. One of the main tasks of the GIOVE Mission Segment is the generation of this navigation message.  
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u-blox AG, the leading Swiss provider of GPS receiver technology, will showcase u-blox 5,
a Galileo-ready A-GPS chip featuring an acquisition performance of less than one second,
at the 2007 CeBIT trade show in Hanover, Germany.CeBIT, which runs from March 15-21, is the world’s leading ICT show and is expected to
attract nearly half a million visitors and over 6000 exhibitors this year. This makes it
the largest marketplace for digital IT and telecommunications solutions, providing a
unique opportunity for product manufacturers, service providers and distributors to meet,
exchange views and do business. u-blox will be promoting its u-blox 5 chip at the event. The new technology boasts an
acquisition and tracking sensitivity of -160 dBm that enables indoor coverage, a
50-channel engine and a power consumption of less than 50 mW. Its energy efficiency and
tracking sensitivity make it ideal for GPS-enabled battery-operated portable devices that
operate in difficult indoor environments like shopping malls, train stations and urban
canyons. “Our ultra fast u-blox 5 chip, with its low power consumption and indoor performance,
enables a whole new range of innovative GPS-enabled applications, from handheld
navigation devices to smart phones,” said Thomas Seiler, u-blox CEO.

The GIOVE-A Signal-in-Space Interface Control Document, the document that gives the technical details of the signals transmitted by the GIOVE-A satellite, has been released. This will allow receiver manufacturers and research institutions to use a real signal for their research and development.
 
Following the launch of GIOVE-A on 28 December 2005 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and the transmission of the first Galileo signals from medium Earth orbit on 12 January 2006, ESA and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL – United Kingdom) have completed the GIOVE-A in-orbit validation activities. The GIOVE-A signal validation has been accomplished through a network of 13 Galileo Experimental Sensor Stations (GESS), deployed world wide, and a GIOVE Processing Centre which computes precise orbits and clock timings for the GIOVE satellites, based on the measurements made by the GESS and satellite laser ranging stations.  
The time for simulation is over, so the ESA Galileo project team is putting at the disposal of the user community the information needed to support the validation of demanding Galileo user applications with a real satellite.

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The GIOVE-A Signal-in-Space ICD is available at the GIOVE web site: http://www.giove.esa.int/