China Wants One of Its Very Own

China has started to expand its current Beidou GNSS, already operational and providing coverage of the People's Republic of China. The enhanced system will cover China and parts of neighboring countries by 2008 before developing into a global network. China's state press agency Xinhua announced on November 2 that the country plans to build an enhanced satellite navigation system of up to 35 satellites that will attain operational status in the Asian region by 2008. This latest iteration of the Beidou system, to be known as Compass, will include five geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellites — an expansion of the current system that numbers three — and add 30 medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites.

The system will provide two navigation services. The Open Service is designed to provide users with positioning accuracy within 10 meters, velocity accuracy with 0.2 meter per second, and timing accuracy within 50 nanoseconds. An Authorized Service will offer "safer" positioning, velocity, and timing communications for authorized users. These subscribers will obtain the services on a more secure network, along with additional information about system integrity.

The report gave no details on system costs.

China has launched three Compass Navigation Satellite System (CNSS) satellites since 2000 and will reportedly launch two more in early 2007 as the first step towards full Beidou realization.

The Beidou (Big Dipper) Navigation Test System 1 (BNTS-1) satellite was launched on October 30, 2000, into a geostationary orbit slot at 140 degrees East longitude, to the southeast of China. On December 20 of that year, Beidou 1B followed, going into a geostationary slot at 80 degrees East longitude, just south of India. Beidou 1C was launched into an orbit at 110.5 degrees East longitude over Borneo on May 24, 2003, completing, according to Chinese statements, a constellation of navigational satellites. The third satellite is an in-orbit back-up, or is usually referred to as such. The system only requires two satellites to function.

Beidou currently functions as a regional positioning system (there are no reports that the SBAS to GPS capability is currently in operation) for survey, telecommunications, transportation, meteorology, fire alert, disaster forecast, and public security. Observers expect the system to attain full coverage of China and parts of neighboring countries by 2008, before expanding to a global network of satellites, called Beidou-2 or Compass.

The Chinese Academy of Space Technology, a primary research center and spacecraft development base, has responsibility for developing Beidou. The Academy says the system "will give an active impetus to our national economic construction." It further states, "At present, only a few countries can develop satellite navigation system independently. Beidou navigation and position system has all of basic capabilities as well as some innovations in its position performance. . . . China is also willing to cooperate with other countries for the interoperability and compatibility of CNSS and other GPS systems."

Threat to Galileo? Galileo officials privately expressed concern that expansion of Beidou functionality could undermine the Galileo business case. Details have always been difficult if not impossible to come by, but experts had believed that China planned use of the long-rumored 30-satellite global system only for its military.

Beidou has long been on the drawing board, but when European industry and governments formulated their business plan for Galileo, they banked on it being only used by the military and thought they could sell receivers and commercial signal subscriptions in China. They felt that the Chinese would buy because they had a commitment from Beijing to invest €200 million.

But this month's announcement that Beidou would in 2008 begin providing an open level of service with 10-meter accuracy, in addition to its encrypted military service, could scupper Galileo's dream of recovering part of its €2.5 billion investment.

The Xinhua report implies that the open service will be available free to all Chinese citizens — although the meaning of "open" is itself open to interpretation in China — and to other countries whose governments strike a deal of some kind.

It remains unclear whether Beidou can secure the necessary frequencies for global operation. As reported in GPS World's October issue, China registered with the International Telecommunication Union its intent to use frequencies close to Galileo's — perhaps in retaliation for the European refusal to admit China into senior Galileo management.

Refunding China's Euros.The Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU) has reportedly begun the process of refunding China's €5 million deposit toward that country's commitment on the grounds that non-European companies may not participate in the Galileo Supervisory Authority, the GJU's successor as of January 1, 2007.

A complete reworking of the current cooperative agreements that the Galileo consortium has struck with China may be necessary. Further, new agreements may be needed to ensure receivers are compatible with all navigation standards: Galileo, GPS, GLONASS, and Beidou.

Meanwhile the status of the China- Europe Global Navigation Satellite System Technical Training and Cooperation Center, set up in Beijing in 2003 to train engineers and graduate students for eventual Galileo take-up and related activities, remains unclear.

Beidou in Use. U.S. intelligence analysts reportedly believe the current Chinese geostationary constellation may already be in use for commercial purposes. "The Chinese military has been using the system, and we have seen press reports out of China that commercial users began plugging into Beidou as early as 2004," says Dean Cheng, senior Asia analyst at the CNA Corporation, a not-for-profitthink tank in Alexandria, Virginia.

"One may infer that private concerns have been pressured into using Beidou," he adds. "The Chinese press has aired complaints that while Beidou's ground reference has the capacity to handle half a million subscribers per hour, only a few thousand are doing so." As an active rather than a passive augmentation of GPS, the Beidou corrections service transmits its GPS corrections wirelessly to subscribers.

"The government is trying to work out how to make money from the system," Cheng said. "So a freight firm, for instance, might be persuaded to use Beidou if it wants a trucking contract."

The Root of All Desire. The basis for the Chinese course correction in satellite navigation seems to be twofold, according to Cheng. "The vulnerability aspect plays a large part in it," he said. Always a dominant Chinese concern, though hardly an exclusive one among nations, it comes first in practical matters. China has huge infrastructure development projects underway, and relies heavily on GPS to survey and construct new rail and highway lines. The government probably feels some discomfort using the U.S. as its sole-source supplier for such positioning. Hence its early interest in Galileo and now (or perhaps just as early) in developing its own system.

The second reason is less quantifiable, but perhaps all the more tangible. "This is what major powers have," stated Cheng. "At the turn of the last century, to qualify as a major power required to capacity to build a modern battleship. At mid-century, it was the possession of large-scale automobile manufacturing. In the early 21st century, it is a full-fledged space program."

Cheng noted that the recent China Space White Paper emphasizes the development of satellite-based positioning and navigation satellites, a long-standing priority among China's space development efforts. He stated that eight key aerospace projects that are constantly mentioned in discussions of China's upcoming new Five-Year Plan include development of new satellite programs: satellite-based positioning and navigation, communications, meteorology, and remote sensing. All four are obviously closely related and can be intertwined. In the Chinese mindset, "a healthy, full-blown space program seems to be what separates the major powers from the second rank," he concluded.

Europe Proceeds as Planned. Officially, the European Commission (EC) puts a calm face on the matter. "The EU's initiative on Galileo has spurred many nations to consider new satellite navigation initiatives," says Michele Cercone, EC spokesperson for satellite navigation issues. "In the developing global satellite navigation market there will be place for all these initiatives. We are confident that Galileo will be able to win its rightful place."

Paul Verhoef, Head of Unit, Satellite Navigation System (Galileo) for the European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy and Transport, affirmed to GPSWorld that "The cooperation of the EU with China on Galileo is very good, we have close contacts, and there is good progress. We have seen some press articles indeed that China would be considering to offer commercial services with their Beidou system. We have not been formally informed yet.

"Such a development would not worry us," Verhoef added. "We expect a considerable global market for satellite navigation in which there will be healthy competition between the systems, including possibly with other systems such as GLONASS. On the other hand, we also expect that there will remain close cooperation between the governments concerned so also between the EU and China and much the same situation as we have on GPS and Galileo between the EU and the United States."

Diplomacy. In an interesting variant on the theory that a satellite navigation system constitutes top-rank political status, Taylor Dinerman of the Space Review opined that "Galileo is becoming less an instrument of European power or prosperity and more of a high-tech instrument of diplomacy."

Now We Are Three

A Boeing Delta booster rocket pushed up the third GPS Block IIR-M satellite on November 17 at approximately 14:12 EST. SVN58/PRN12 will go into slot B4. The satellite currently in slot B4, SVN35/PRN05 (launched in 1993) will move to slot B5. SVN35/ PRN05 has one good atomic clock (Rb1) with its other three clocks on a "watch list."

An Air Force commander informally told GPS World earlier this year that the GPS Wing has prepared a plan to boost the remaining five IIR-Ms into orbit during 2007. If these launches take place next year, they would clear the pad for delivery of the first GPS Block IIF satellite in December 2007, and its currently scheduled launch in May 2008.

According to a different unofficial source, SVN23, an old Block IIA satellite decommissioned in 2004, might be recommissioned as PRN32 on or about November 14/15, 2006.

This may seek to test the ability of current GPS receivers to handle more than 31 PRN numbers. According to IS-GPS-200D, PRN code number 32 is permitted but has not been used since 1993.

According to an unofficial report, SVN 23 may only be "visible" to the Air Force, and possibly to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). The satellite may only be set to non-standard code, possibly for test purposes only.

Russia, India Bond Over GLONASS

Under an agreement drafted in 2004 and recently approved by the Russian parliament and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch upcoming Russian GLONASS-M satellites on Indian boosters and jointly develop with Russia a new generation GLONASS-K satellite.

The agreement for joint space exploration represents a transfer to New Delhi of sensitive space technology for peaceful use, according to the Kremlin press service. The agreement covers protection of secret information, intellectual property rights, and dispute settlement.

However, Russia's defence ministry has also reportedly agreed to grant India access to GLONASS's military segment, used for guidance of smart weapons. The two countries will also jointly develop and market GLONASS receivers for commercial use.

The agreement will certainly aid India's own GNSS initiative, the GPS and GEO-Aided Navigation System (GAGAN) regional satellite navigation system, designed — similar to China's revamped Compass — to give New Delhi a greater degree of positioning autonomy. When operational, it will span the Indian Ocean from East Africa to Australia. Its primary purpose is to improve India's air traffic control and civil aviation safety, but GAGAN also has a key strategic aspect at sea.

India's merchant and military naval fleets constitute a significant presence in the Indian Ocean. The United States, as an ally, sees this as a good thing, but China likely has a different opinion. Most of China's oil imports come from the Persian Gulf, across sea lanes controlled by the United States and India. In the long run, none of the three powers wishes to rely on either of the others for provision of vital navigation information in the region.

LORAN Lives to Another Day

The U.S. House and Senate Conference Committee has reportedly once more blocked efforts to cut off air to the LORAN system, owned and operated by the U.S. Coast Guard. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), overseeing the Coast Guard, had allocated zero funding for LORAN in its 2007 budget. But Congress has put several procedural hurdles in the way of closure while awaiting an independent review.

Congress may or may not have gotten an advance peek at the report of the recently formed, 11-member LORAN Independent Assessment Team, high-ranking specialists in navigation and timing technologies led by Brad Parkinson. At the very least, the Conference Committee is stalling on a LORAN verdict until the team's report, under auspices of Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA), a federally funded research and development think tank, to the Department of Transportation in late November or early December.

GPS Backup.The key technical issue involves LORAN's potential as a backup to GPS during accidental or deliberate jamming and solar interference effects, and in obstructed environments. LORAN provides a low-frequency, reliable and, according to its supporters, essentially unjammable signal for navigation and high-accuracy timing.

The new enhanced or eLORAN mode would incorporate chipset-level LORAN receivers into GPS modules, operating autonomously to track an aircraft's (for example) position using signals from every station within 1,000 miles or more.

FAA flight tests have shown that eLoran can provide corrected position accuracies close to GPS positions, and nanosecond-level timing, already in use as GPS backup in critical infrastructure such as telecommunications, banking, and utility control systems.

Cost, as ever, constitutes the prime bone of contention. DHS reportedly thinks modernization will cost around $350 million, and follow-on operating costs would be $35 million per year. Others have suggested that a civil contractor could perform the necessary work and convert LORAN stations to unmanned operation for about $60 million, and $12 million per year for continued maintenance.

Construction Begins on Galileo Operations Center

Construction of the new Galileo ground control center at Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich in southern Germany, began on November 7. German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee said at a foundation-stone ceremony that Germany would thus become the center of the European satellite navigation industry.

The €16 million ($20 million) complex will employ 100 engineers and controllers. Construction's start puts a closing punctuation to a statement by Norbert Schuldt, the German Transport Ministry's head of division for telematics and new transport technology, at the European Navigation Conference (ENC) GNSS 2005 in Munich: "As the main source of funding, Germany wants payoff." The second of the two control centers will situate at Toulouse, France, neighboring the French space agency, CNES.

At present one Galileo test satellite, GIOVE-A, is in orbit, with control administered through its manufacturer's — Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. — headquarters in Guildford, United Kingdom. Launch of the second test satellite, GIOVE-B, is now set for spring 2007.