Fear of mutual interference between the American GPS satellites and European satellites that will be launched soon
Avi Blizovsky
The American Department of Defense, the Pentagon, recently transferred its concern about the interference inherent in the European Galileo satellites that are to be launched soon, to the American positioning satellite system, GPS, which is known to be used all over the world to navigate ships and planes. The American GPS satellites transmit their data at a frequency of 1,500 MHz with an accuracy of 100 meters to anyone in the world who has a device that receives this data. The satellites also transmit signals at a frequency of 1,200 MHz, but these are encrypted signals for military purposes and their accuracy is up to six meters. The GPS system has undergone an upgrade since 1999 and two civil signals will be added to it, one with a frequency of 1,200 MHz and the other slightly below it & 1,176 MHz.
The frequencies that the European Union offers for the Galileo system are in the range of frequencies used by the US military, and therefore the Americans fear mutual frequency interference. US Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz sent his colleagues across Europe a letter in which he raised concerns that the Galileo satellites could cause disruption to the operational military system. He added that since all NATO members also benefit from the GPS satellites and they can benefit from it instead of developing their own independent Galileo system. The British newspaper Financial Times reported that the European defense ministers would have preferred a navigation system free from Pentagon supervision. The Council of Europe has until the end of March to approve half of the budget for the Galileo project, with the other half already reserved by the European Space Agency. The President of France, Jacques Chirc urged to develop Galileo, in order to ensure that Europe will not be a "vassal" of the USA, according to the Financial Times.
GPS receivers are used in enterprise applications, including aircraft navigation, mining, truck tracking, fleet management and monitoring. A consumer GPS receiver costs about $100. A dual system can provide greater accuracy and in addition it can also provide availability, continuity and reliability. The use of the system will be particularly useful in situations where the performance of the GPS satellites is marginal, such as in malls (ravines and canals - not AB shopping centers), inside the cities, and in other problematic environments.
As mentioned, the European Space Agency allocated 466 million dollars (500 million euros) to finance the European grant for the GPS system. The assessment is that industrial companies will develop dual systems that can connect to both the American GPS system and the European Galileo and thus obtain, as mentioned, greater accuracy, high availability , continuity and reliability compared to a system that only includes a GPS link. The 15 member states of the European Space Agency approved the budget for Galileo at a ministerial meeting in Edinburgh in November. The CEO of the agency, Antonio Rodota, says that the system has been under development since 1999, and it was designed to provide greater accuracy to the navigation signals thanks to a system of thirty satellites operating on the same frequency as the GPS. The European funding will cover the development and testing phase of the system, including launch of three satellites. The European Space Agency estimates the total cost of the Galileo project at 2.6 billion dollars.
Richard Langley, a professor at the Geophysical Research Laboratory at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, UK, says that the reason for using the same frequency as the GPS satellites is to make it easier for the developers of the dual receivers and thus prices can be cheap. Langley predicts that the cost of a dual device will not be higher than that of a GPS-only receiver, and when Galileo is operational, the GPS-only receivers will be thrown into the trash.
According to the plan, the Galileo satellites will be fully operational in 2008.
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