UNESCO SCIENCE REPORT

UNESCO SCIENCE REPORT
Box 9.2: Galileo: a future rival for GPS
The European Galileo navigation system
is potentially a serious rival for the
US Global Positioning System (GPS).
Equipped with the best atomic clocks
ever used for navigation, the European
system will have the precision of one
second for every three million years. Its
more inclined orbit will give it greater
coverage than GPS, particularly over
northern Europe.
Another difference between GPS
and Galileo is that Galileo has always
been a civil project, whereas GPS was
designed by the US Department of
Defense and only later adapted to civil
use, in recognition of the potential
for commercial spin-offs and the
prospect of competitive systems being
developed.
Once operational, Galileo will not only
facilitate road, maritime and air traffic
flows but should also help to develop
services like e-ecommerce and mobile
phone applications. It can also be used
by scientists for atmospheric studies
and environmental management. In
2014, an article published in Science
reported that a GPS system had
detected an elevation of land in
Western USA caused by the prolonged
drought in this region; satellite navigation
systems could thus be used around the
world to detect changes in the amount
of water stored in the subsoil. Galileo
should be able to offer these services
once the first ten satellites out of 22 have
been placed in orbit, alternately by the
Russian Soyouz and European Ariane 5
launchers.
On 22 August 2014, satellites five and six
were launched by Soyouz from French
Guyana. However, they ended up in an
elliptical orbit 17 000 km above the Earth
rather than in their intended circular
orbit 23 000 km above the Earth. An
investigation into the mishap found that
the fuel had frozen in the upper section
of Soyouz.
The project has been plagued with
problems since its inception in 1999.
Initially, European countries were divided
as to the project’s usefulness, some
considering Galileo superfluous, given
the existence of GPS, others stressing
the advantages of an independent
navigation system for Europe.
The conclusion of an agreement
with the USA in 2004 guaranteed the
compatibility of the dual systems but
the costs of Galileo then began to
skyrocket: from € 3.3 billion initially to
€ 5.5 by 2014. This inflation put paid to
the initial public–private partnership,
two-thirds funded by the private sector;
the partnership was abandoned in 2007
when the project was entrusted to the
European Space Agency.
From this point on, the project took
off. However, the German company
entrusted with building the 22
satellites, OHB, proved incapable of
delivering them on time. This forced
the European Space Agency to appeal
for help to OHB’s competitors, Airbus
and the French company Thales.
Ultimately, the launch of satellites five
and six was delayed a year, until August
2014. If all goes according to plan, all
the remaining satellites will have been
deployed by 2017.
In the meantime, other countries have
launched their own programmes.
These include the Russian navigation
system Glonasa, the Chinese Beidou,
the Japanese QZSS system and India’s
INRSS project.
Source: adapted from Gallois (2014)
since the creation of the EU–China Comprehensive Strategic
Partnership in 2003. During the Seventh Framework
Programme, China was the EU’s third-largest partner country
(after the USA and the Russian Federation) for the number
of participating organizations (383) and collaborative
research projects (274), particularly those focusing on health,
environment, transportation, ICTs and the bio-economy
(European Commission, 2014b).
Co-operation with China is significant for qualitative reasons,
as many projects focus on frontier technologies, such as
clean and efficient carbon capture. In addition to facilitating
a convergence of views between researchers of different
backgrounds, this co-operation has had some positive
spillovers to other regions in in complex cross-disciplinary
areas, one example being the project for Advancing
Universal Health Coverage in Asia over 2009–2013). 14 The
EU and China are also co-operating within Euratom 15 via its
fission programme and construction of the International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in France to further
research into nuclear fusion. 16 Between 2007 and 2013, nearly
4 000 Chinese researchers received funding through the
Marie Curie Actions (European Commission, 2014b).
The EU intends for China to remain an important partner of
Horizon 2020, even though China is no longer eligible for
funding from the European Commission, meaning that EU
14. See: http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/all_headlines_en.cfm
15. The European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) was founded in 1957 with
the purpose of creating a common market for nuclear power in Europe to ensure a
regular and equitable supply of nuclear fuel to EU users.
16. For details, see the UNESCO Science Report 2010, p. 158.
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