The UK government has announced plans to explore new options for a UK satellite navigation and timing capability programme.
The Space-Based Positioning Navigation and Timing Programme (SBPP) will explore new and alternative ways to deliver the vital satellite navigation services that underpin transport systems, energy networks, mobile communications and national security and defence.
The initiative plans to build on the work UK’s Global Navigation Satellite System (UK GNSS) programme, which concludes at the end of the month (September 2020) and which has developed outline plans for a conventional satellite system as an alternative to American GPS or the EU’s Galileo.
The programme will now be reset as the SBPP to build on this work to consider newer, more innovative ideas of delivering global sat nav and secure satellite services to meet public, government and industry needs.
The programme will explore the use of different kinds of satellites at various levels of orbit by exploiting technologies offered by companies including OneWeb, Inmarsat and Airbus.
As previously reported, earlier this summer the UK government joined forces with India’s Bharti group to rescue OneWeb from collapse.
With the UK entirely dependent on technology such as the United States’ GPS or the EU’s Galileo system for critical navigation services, the government claims that the new programme will potentially pave the way for greater independence from foreign systems and create opportunities for British businesses.
Graham Turnock, CEO of the UK Space Agency said: “Our work to date has developed cutting-edge UK expertise in satellite navigation spacecraft, antenna design and control systems, while supporting high-skilled jobs. Now is the time to drive this work further to look into wider, more innovative ways of delivering this important national capability – to help protect our critical infrastructure and put the UK at the forefront of the development of new space technologies.”
The announcement was also welcomed by Paul Everitt, CEO of industry trade body ADS. “The UK’s space industry has the capacity, experience and enterprise to support government’s ambition for a national satellite navigation and timing capability. Industry is ready to play its part in exploring innovative ways of delivering this important capability for our national security and resilience. Investment in the UK’s space industry will encourage innovation, boost exports and support the contribution the space industry can make to jobs and prosperity.”
More Brexit insanity. With its environmently costly rocketry and constant need for upgrades, GPS is best addressed by international cooperation. It’s also a crazy waste of money for such a small country to have its own system. None of the government’s actions on this so far suggest that they understand the technical issues.
What a complete waste of time and energy when we could (and still should) have access to the Galileo constellation.
I suppose they will need a new system to keep track of foreign lorries in Kent. Yay sovrinty innit.
Yet another nail in the Brexit stupidity coffin we all share.
Let’s hope that they make a better job than the government tracing apps. Whenever I see the word ‘cutting edge technology’ I know that we are in for a rough ride.
Summed up to perfection…………..what utter, ignorant people we seem doomed to have (trying) to run the country
GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO. The Chinese are building a system too. How many more systems do we all need? Opportunities for British business? Reinventing the wheel more like and with far far far fewer customers for the end product. The whole point of these is for those countries that want and can justify a global military reach. Clearly they have not got their noses out of the hancient history books and therefore do not realise that we no longer have a worldwide empire that needed policing and protecting. To service domestic needs a single feed horn on Astra covers our territory with ease. We only need another three or four to sustain triangulation calculations and what for? So we can track all motor vehicles and mobile phones? Existing devices already use the current systems so where is the market for replacements that can receive the signals. This is a bit like HS2, yet another limited if any value vanity project. Why don’t we resurrect Concorde for RAF One purposes and set up production of TSR2 again come to that why don’t we re-capture (sorry invade) the old empire again. And who is going to pay for this as well as maintaining two aircraft carrier battle groups, replacing Trident, upgrading (haha) the NHS and care system? Oh I know lets cut public services and taxes – that’ll work, and we can then rely on the financial market centre of excellence that we will no longer have post Brexit instead. All that dubious money coming from foreign ‘investors’ languishing in off-shore bank accounts, oh yes we can afford it all.
According to https://www.usegalileo.eu/ there are an estimated 1.6 billion Galileo-enabled smartphones today. My estimate is that zero smartphones support UK GNSS at the moment. The chipset manufacturers can only begin designing new silicon, once the specifications are published for the new UK system – and how much of a hurry will they be in to serve a relatively niche market? Only when these new chips arrive in volume, will we start to see new iPhone and Android devices that work with a home-grown system. I’d suggest if we go ahead with this, it should be paid for out of the defence budget, as they would appear to be the main beneficiaries
A report from 2012 states the cost of running GPS is $750Mpa. Perhaps our leaders see that as a cheap way to stoke their vanity.
(https://nation.time.com/2012/05/21/how-much-does-gps-cost/)
PS I wonder who is going to design and make the receiver/decoder chips that would be needed to make a navigation system economically competitive.
Why not ask them? Be proactive.
Excellent summary. My sentiment entirely.
Almost entirely agree, although those who see every issue as a means to continue the dead Brexit debate need to focus more on the technical solutions and less on sour grapes.
Looks like a fantastic job creation scheme to me
All those engineers involved in finally getting the current swath of IT infrastructure working such as Track and Trace, Border Security, Customs , Fishing Boat tracking etc, etc… after 2025 or thereabouts will be able to move on to reinventing another wheel
I must admit to not knowing why the EU was keen to move the UK out of the project – I cannot see how it benefits them , except for the access to the more robust option, rather than the open options; there must be some financial/business issues there, which is not obvious – or perhaps it is viewed as some sort of bargaining tool.
I should say that the satellites (for GPS) are usually in a medium Earth orbit (MEO) with a period of 12 hours – which would mean that using geostationary satellites (around the equator) would be too low in the sky – especially for more northern latitudes.
The number of satellites to define position unequivocally are 4 – but more are preferable (eg to get a better estimate of the true time for the receiver, with its inaccurate clock) and 6 or more are preferred.
I cannot remember how many satellites are required for a GPS constellation – at least 20 – possibly 30.
I scrolled down the comments made on this item out of “fairness” to see if there were any views supporting this vanity project – none. Another BREXIT egg hatching a monster that will consume our taxes for little or no reward.
Time to look again at the fundamentals. Given the ‘free’ use of existing systems, what is the need?
If it is for local secure use, then if a series of ground-based masts can’t do the trick, [as was the idea for a network of Line-of-Sight Post Office Towers] then my favourite would be to consider a variant of an orbiting satellite by using the ‘circling line’ technique consisting of a cable suppying power to an electrically-powered aircraft circling around a ground point under autopilot control . Take a redundant Jumbo and by using a lift guided by the cable to change shifts and kit, and say a few of them to give redundancy and at an altitude to give LOS coverage of the whole UK, there would be sufficient capability to ‘communicate’ aka spy on the whole population in a secure manner. The export potential would be huge.