The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has a new facility: the Galileo Competence Center. There, scientists and engineers from industry are to further develop the European satellite navigation system Galileo, which went into operation five years ago, for new uses. “The technology transfer from science to users has a special task,” emphasized DLR CEO Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla at the opening on Thursday.
Galileo is a success story and not only because it makes Europe independent of non-European actors in the “critical areas”, as Matthias Petschke, the European Commission’s Space Director from Brussels, explained. After five years, Galileo already had two billion users who received the satellite signals in their various devices. This ranges from traffic navigation and bank transfers to climate research, surveys and disaster control. Petschke cited sea rescue as an example. It used to take three to four hours to locate an emergency signal. Thanks to Galileo, this can now be done in less than ten minutes and with greater precision.
Sabine Jarothe, Ministerial Director in the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, was delighted about the “endless possibilities” for satellite navigation in everyday life. “It is important for us that the competence center goes into application and creates new future fields”. The benefit for business and industry is to be promoted. For the Galileo Competence Center, she had promised a grant from the Ministry of 25 million euros.
In order to remain competitive, the second generation of satellites is currently being developed and new offers are to be created. The “time” factor will play a special role here. With satellite navigation, data about the on-board time and the satellite orbit are continuously sent to the earth. The receiver calculates the distance to the satellite by determining how long the signal has been traveling. The satellite clocks must be synchronized as perfectly as possible. This area should be optimized.
A new pillar for the Galileo Competence Center: (from left) DLR CEO Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla, founding director Felix Huber, Anke Pagels-Kerp, board member of the DLR Space Department and Ministerial Director Sabine Jarothe.
(Photo: Patrizia Steipe / oh)
Christoph Günther, Director of the Institute for Communication and Navigation at DLR, will work with the competence center on new applications for the satellite navigation system. “The aim is to significantly increase the accuracy from orbit”. The signals should be so precise that navigation is possible to the centimeter. To this end, optical technologies are being tested on the International Space Station ISS in the Galileo Competence Center. Special iodine laser clocks, coordinated with other components, are intended to improve position determination on earth.
Once the technologies have proven themselves on the ISS, they should be prepared for use on the Galileo satellite. Another project is to combine the clocks on the ground and in the satellites at a common time that is continuously compared with the world time. The exact time recording is particularly relevant for navigation, financial transactions, the energy sector and agriculture. It is also important that the systems are “protected against active interference from outside”, says Kaysser-Pyzalla.
The European civil satellite navigation system Galileo has been providing navigation signals with high accuracy since 2016. Galileo consists of a global network of currently 22 satellites, which are located in three orbits at an altitude of 23,000 kilometers. The satellites are controlled from two control centers. One is at the DLR site in Oberpfaffenhofen, the other in Fucino, Italy. With Galileo, Europe is independent of satellite systems from other nations such as the US GPS. pat
Agriculture can also benefit from the technology transfer. Frank Gemmer, General Manager of the Agricultural Industry Association, sees great potential in satellite navigation in the production of healthy food. With the new technology, fields could be cleared of weeds better mechanically, so that chemicals could be saved. Thanks to precise positioning, the agricultural machinery can precisely distinguish the beet from the weed and remove it. But Galileo could also help with the application of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. Felix Huber, founding director of the Galileo Competence Center, met with open ears with these ideas. “This is exactly what the competence center is for,” he said. Over time, he wants to reduce the influence of DLR in the new center in favor of business and industry.
The Galileo Competence Center currently consists of 35 employees. The offices are provisionally located on the neighboring Air-Tech site. In the long term, the center is expected to grow to around 150 employees. A new building on the DLR campus is being planned. The Starnberg District Administrator Stefan Frey promised “quick decisions and construction procedures” and pointed out the expansion areas for companies at the special airport Oberpfaffenhofen.