In a few years a new satellite-based navigation system will be able to localise everyone with a mobile telephone to within a few metres and in some cases 20-30 centimetres. The same advanced technology can also be used to navigate aircraft, ships and cars with much greater precision than today - and save lives into the bargain.
Other applications include more accurate earthquake and tidal wave predictions, enhanced data accuracy and supply efficiency, improved efficiency in fishing and agriculture, and a host of other areas that utilise precision positioning. Named after the famous Italian scientist, Galileo is the first European satellite-based navigation system and the first in the world to be constructed specifically for civilian use.
The EU Commission, which has initiated the project in collaboration with the European Space Agency, is aiming to have the system operative by the end of 2010. The USA has its GPS system – also used in Europe – which is under the control of the military, but the EU is emphasising that Galileo will be an independent system. The aim is also to make it more precise and reliable. And everyone who is equipped with a small, cheap chip will be able to use both systems anywhere in the world.
The Galileo system will have three main groups of users. A free service will be generally available to everyone who has a receiver such as a mobile telephone. Commercial users – land surveyors, transport companies, shipping companies etc. – with a need for greater quantities of data can take out a subscription. And a service with encrypted signals will be reserved for users requiring the highest degree of precision positioning, such as airline companies, traffic authorities and Europe's military forces.
The European Commission considers that the new navigation system will change the lives of many Europeans in the coming years: "Galileo will revolutionise our society in the same way as the mobile telephone and the Internet has done. This technology can be put to countless uses – undoubtedly many more than we can even dream of today." By Eva Isager, cht@cowi.com Published: 27.10. 2006