News

As the mobile industry continues to grow, new opportunities open up for collaboration with the European space industry. Michel Bosco from European Commission, Head of Application Development for the Galileo and EGNOS programs, was present at Mobile World Congress explaining the mobile developers what are the upcoming challenges and opportunities brought by Galileo & EGNOS.

Belgium is making preparations for introducing a Road User Charging (RUC) scheme for heavy vehicles. This scheme could potentially be extended to all vehicles across the country in a few years time. Meanwhile a small case study in the Belgian city of Leuven has shown how a RUC scheme based on satellite technology could help relieve congestion and change driver behaviour.

By combining GNSS and EGNOS augmented positioning with airborne inertial measurements and a global gravity model, also derived from space-based technology, the Galileo for Gravity project is developing an accurate, cost effective gravimetry surveying service. This has tremendous potential for enhancing activities such as mineral prospecting and a wide range of other commercial and academic applications.

Hungary is clearly keen on space technology with more than 17 500 visitors passing through the doors of the European Space Expo in Budapest at the end of March. The free exhibition featuring Europe’s Galileo, EGNOS and Copernicus programmes was a big hit with Hungarian citizens of all ages during its first excursion into eastern Europe!

Precision agriculture is an area where satellite-enabled services have made a big impact. But sometimes the weather gets in the way or farmers need very high resolution data. Now EGNOS is being used to help develop a flexible ‘camera in the sky’ service that can provide the essential data that farms need, when they need it.

Which came first: the chicken or the egg? It is an old puzzle, but applicable to many contemporary situations. For instance, in the aviation sector adoption of EGNOS-enabled navigation procedures needs acceptance from all sides - airports, aircraft manufacturers, operators and air navigation service providers (ANSPs) – to realise maximum benefits for all. The Accepta project is working to break inertia in the sector and accelerate adoption of EGNOS technologies.