Europe launches sat-nav tester

[Sweetpea]

A demonstrator spacecraft for Europe's proposed Galileo satellite navigation system has launched from Kazakhstan.
The Giove-B satellite was taken into space atop a Soyuz rocket which left Earth at 2216 GMT, Saturday.
The demonstrator will test the key technologies which will eventually be built into the 30 operational platforms that form the Galileo network.
These include the atomic clocks which provide the precise timing that underpins all sat-nav applications.
Giove-B - a half-tonne, 2.4x1x1m box assembled by EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space - is the second demonstrator satellite to go into orbit following the launch of Giove-A in 2005.
The first mission met international obligations to claim the frequencies Galileo will use to transmit its signals to receivers on the ground.
This second mission flies a spacecraft which is, to a large degree, a template for the 30 operational platforms that will follow. A fundamental focus for Giove-B will be the in-orbit behaviour of its passive hydrogen maser clock.


It is the most stable clock ever put in permanent orbit, and is designed to keep time with an accuracy of better than one nanosecond (billionth of a second) in 24 hours. As well as its atomic clocks (Giove-B carries three clocks), the latest demonstrator will test the generation of signals across the full spectrum Galileo intends to use for its five sat-nav services.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Europe launches sat-nav tester


It will be good to get our own satellite navigation and not have to rely on the American satellites for it and my atomic clocks will be even more accurate.

[easyg]

On the other side Sweets. I have for the last couple of days for a utility company called "Laing O Rourke". They are contracted by Thames Water to replace ageing Victorian water pipes on the streets of Greater London.
Now the point of the post is, you get gangs of water pipe fitters carrying out this work all over London, they are now required to carry a special sat nav phone, so that they clock on and clock off recording their times. They can't clock off when at home because the phone records their position when clocking on and off.
More big Brother

[Sweetpea]

Not quite the point, the technology is there so that company is using it. It's going to make no difference to them one way or the other. If we are going to have it, better to have our own don't you think?