{"id":1809677,"date":"2022-11-03T12:29:25","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T16:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1809677"},"modified":"2022-11-03T12:29:25","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T16:29:25","slug":"esa-considering-low-orbit-satellites-to-improve-galileo-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/11\/esa-considering-low-orbit-satellites-to-improve-galileo-system\/","title":{"rendered":"ESA Considering Low-Orbit Satellites to Improve Galileo System"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The idea of using low-earth-orbit satellites to provide greater GPS\/GNSS accuracy isn\u2019t limited to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/10\/starlink-as-gps-alternative\/\">commandeering the Starlink constellation<\/a>. The European Space Agency <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/Applications\/Navigation\/ESA_plans_for_low-orbiting_navigation_satellites\">is exploring the idea of using low-flying satellites to increase Galileo\u2019s accuracy and robustness<\/a>: make it possible to use indoors, make it more resistant to jamming and interference, and enable positioning at the centimetre level. They\u2019re planning an in-orbit demonstration of around six satellites to test the proposition. The satellites would supplement the existing <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Galileo_(satellite_navigation)\">Galileo<\/a> constellation rather than replace it: for one thing, they would rely on the Galileo satellites\u2019 atomic clocks, which would allow the low-flying satellites to be an order of magnitude smaller in size. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/158468\/navigation-satellites-fly-at-23000-km-altitude-europe-wants-to-build-a-constellation-that-flies-much-much-lower\/\"><em>Universe Today<\/em><\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The idea of using low-earth-orbit satellites to provide greater GPS\/GNSS accuracy isn\u2019t limited to commandeering the Starlink constellation. The European Space Agency is exploring the idea of using low-flying satellites to increase Galileo\u2019s accuracy and&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/11\/esa-considering-low-orbit-satellites-to-improve-galileo-system\/\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[254],"tags":[446,1309],"class_list":["post-1809677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-gps","tag-esa","tag-galileo","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1810022,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/11\/supergps-promises-ten-centimetre-accuracy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1809677,"position":0},"title":"SuperGPS Promises Ten-Centimetre Accuracy","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"24 November 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"It seems to be steam engine time for GPS alternatives. We\u2019ve already seen two proposals that suggest using constellations of low-flying satellites to provide greater accuracy and more resilience against signal blocking than GPS and other orbital navigation systems can provide. Now a research team in the Netherlands is developing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;GPS&quot;","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1806985,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/04\/spacecraft-will-test-satnav-reception-from-lunar-orbit\/","url_meta":{"origin":1809677,"position":1},"title":"Spacecraft Will Test Satnav Reception from Lunar Orbit","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"21 April 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"More on the astonishing idea that Earth-orbiting GNSS satellites can be used for navigation at the Moon. The European Space Agency reports that among the instruments carried by the upcoming Lunar Pathfinder commercial mission will be a 1.4 kg satnav receiver that will test its ability to receive GPS and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/astronomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1788572,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/03\/can-gps-be-used-on-the-moon\/","url_meta":{"origin":1809677,"position":2},"title":"Can GPS Be Used on the Moon?","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"30 March 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"More on the question of whether GPS can be used for navigation on the lunar surface\u2014that is to say the existing constellations of Earth-orbiting GNSS satellites, not a new constellation of satellites around the moon. A new study suggests that the answer is yes: GPS and other navigation systems could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/astronomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1840665,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/05\/exploring-gps-alternatives\/","url_meta":{"origin":1809677,"position":3},"title":"Exploring GPS Alternatives","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"16 May 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"In March the FCC issued a Notice of Inquiry to explore GPS alternatives, citing increasing threats to the resiliency of the existing GPS network. GPS World worries that the U.S. may limit domestic access to non-U.S. navigation systems (Beidou, Galileo, GLONASS), which many devices support, for security reasons. Breathless coverage\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;GPS&quot;","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5305,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2012\/03\/atlas-of-the-galilean-satellites\/","url_meta":{"origin":1809677,"position":4},"title":"Atlas of the Galilean Satellites","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"5 March 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Paul Schenk\u2019s Atlas of the Galilean Satellites (Cambridge University Press, 2010) collects all the imagery gathered by the Voyager and Galileo missions of the four major moons of Jupiter (Callisto, Ganymede, Europa and Io, all discovered by Galileo in 1610) and assembles them into global, quadrangle and area maps. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/astronomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/atlas-galilean-259x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1809541,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/10\/starlink-as-gps-alternative\/","url_meta":{"origin":1809677,"position":5},"title":"Starlink as GPS Alternative","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"26 October 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"The point of SpaceX\u2019s Starlink constellation, consisting of some 3,000 low-orbiting satellites (so far), is to provide broadband internet access. But it could also be used as an alternative to GPS that might be less susceptible to jamming or spoofing. The U.S. Army and a team at the University of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;GPS&quot;","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1809677"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1809680,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809677\/revisions\/1809680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1809677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1809677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1809677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}