Galileo, Galileo...
Tony Fyler 4 comments
Ahhh, Europe. Such a glorious concept - nations working in economic harmony for the good of all. And yet, on times, such a horrendous, back-biting, medieval, bureaucratically incompetent application, it just makes you want to weep, or laugh yourself sick, or hit someone's head against a wall. Probably your own.
Take Galileo, for instance.
Galileo the man was in many ways the father of modern science. He knocked off the proof of pendulums' motion in a handful of years, had, I gather, more revolutionary insights into the laws of the universe in two months than anyone else in the history of humanity had in a lifetime (and yes, that includes the likes of Einstein, Darwin, and Newton - although Newton was so secretive you can never entirely be sure), and stood by his experimental convictions in the face of staunch opposition from church forces, culminating in his house arrest for the last few years of his life. In the annals of science, he's got to rank up there with the big boys, and apart from anything else, it's safe to say that Galileo Got Things Done.
So when the European Union decided to develop its own version of GPS, they cast around for a name for it, a European name that would speak of the very best of scientific endeavour in space-related fields, and quite naturally, they landed on Galileo. I gather Newton was a bit pissed about the whole thing, but the point about being dead is no-one has to pay you any mind.
Now, GPS, as I'm sure we all know, is made up of a constellation of satellites orbiting the Earth, a network of ground-based stations and a vast number of receivers. Your in-car navigation system obviously has one - it's what picks up the signals from the satellite and, after translation, more or less tells you where you are. Your cell phone's probably got one too by now. GPS receivers are cheap bits of silicon, and they're being stuck into everything. GPS is pretty damn good at determining position, but it's also extremely good at deteremining what time it is, so a lot of ground-based infrastructure's now run on GPS time - the US stock market? Run by GPS timing signals. The US energy grid? Run by GPS timing signals. Landline phone networks...mobile phone networks...you name it, it's probably run on GPS timing signals. Not to mention of course every plane that's in the sky, every big ship that's out there, every oil well, every ambulance and fire truck...we're living in a GPS world. (More scary stories about that another time...)
So if it's that good, why in the name of sanity would Europe want its own version? Well of course, GPS was developed first and foremost by the US Military. When it first arrived on the scene, it was 'sort of' scrambled for everyone but the US Military, in a move called - with a gorgeously American turn of phrase - 'Selective Availability'. During Bill Clinton's time in the White House, he switched off Selective Availability, and good quality GPS signals became available to everyone, military and civilian, all over the world, and the GPS world we live in gradually came to pass. At which point, having shown little prior interest, the governments of Europe pricked up their ears and said 'Hang on a minute...they've turned off Selective Availability, and now our world depends on GPS. What's to stop them turning ON Selective Availability again, and screwing us all six ways from Sunday?' Gotta love that attitude of global trust, haven'tcha?
And so they began to draw up plans for Galileo - the European version of GPS. They began this work in 2001, with plans to get a 30 satellite constellation up and running by 2007. In 2007, without so much as a trial satellite in the atmosphere, negotiations collapsed. Most of the European nations wanted a piece of the Galileo action, and neither national governments, nor the companies involved, could come to any agreement on funding, work distribution, profitability (did I mention, they wanted to make this a system where the end user - that's you and me - would PAY to use Galileo)...or indeed anything else. Everyone concerned got a rap on the knuckles from the European Commission, and for a while it looked like Galileo was a dead project. But oh no - it was saved at the eleventh hour, by diverting funds from the EU agriculture budget (you can imagine the fun had by Euro-journos with that one, can't you? Cows Rescue Galileo...). Some 2.1 billion Euros of agriculture funding were earmarked for the project, which ultimately would be drawn from national taxpayers. And so the process began again. Deadlines came, and deadlines went. The idea was now that the system would be up and running by 2009.
In 2009, just as it was about to lose the right to its frequencies, Europe managed to get two test satellites up, essentially to keep the project alive. Dealines stretched again. The end of 2010 was the new deadline to get the full constellation up.
Since those two test satellites were launched, nothing else has gone into orbit to replace them. The deadline has continued to stretch, to 2011, 2012, 2014, and now 2015...
It's worth noting that during the same time, the US has begun a total revamp of GPS, but what's more, the Russians, who also started work on a newly revamped satellite network in 2001, will by the end of this year have a worldwide network of coverage, akin to GPS, for their GLONASS system. The Chinese, who only got into the game a handful of years ago, now aim to have a worldwide system up and runing by 2020, and show every sign of being able to achieve this goal.
Can I say again...It's 2010, one year after the second deadline for a full constellation, and Europe has how many full satellites up there? Not one, that's how many. It has two tester satellites in orbit, and one of them is now way beyond its expected operational lifespan, and so could go wrong practically at any minute.
Oh and here's the kicker. Just a week ago, on the same day that our new government here in the UK announced swingeing cuts to public sector jobs and significant tax rises, the EU popped round for a chat. It turns out that the whole of the agriculture budget cash allocated in 2007, and more (3.4 billion Euros to be exact), has been spent already, preparing four 'in-orbit validation vessels' - no, these still aren't the proper Galileo satellites. 2015 now looks like a dream, rather than a viable deadline, oh and by the way, could we have another 1.5 billion Euros for Galileo please, we're out of money...
I swear, were he still alive, Galileo would be petitioning the European Union right about now to have his name removed from anything to do with this disastrous, farcical project. Oi, Newton, you still wanna have a go at getting these people to work together? Good luck, mate!
Rodney
Thursday 15th July 2010 | 08:52 AMHaving multiple GPS models is a good thing. Firstly, it offers redundancy in the network. Secondly, it begins to offer competition - which leads to a stronger marketplace, more options, faster development, etc.
None the less, the EU isn't exactly off to a good start, as you say. I suppose the reason the Chinese can get there quickly is they a) don't care about costs, b) have all the technology already, c) have all the manufacturing capabilities and d) have serious incentive - the US and China are not likely to sit on the same side in a military conflict and China views everything through military goggles. Russia has similar advantages (apart from c).
The EU, on the other hand, has no real reason to push ahead with this, other than pride and as you say, a slight mistrust in America. They also have a fractured government with little real power (Russia is a single country with a single (authoritarian) government, as is China - while the EU is a conglomerate of people who don't really like each other). I imagine budgetary issues are the number one concern for the EU and it's probably largely because three specific countries are footing 95% of the bill and lately, they've had more pressing financial concerns.
Alright, alright...Ya' got me, but I still smell a conspiracy here. Now I'm not up on British polotics, but I cant imagine that it's any different that what it is here in the U.S.
It seem that there's always somebody who has an agenda that needs public support in the form of dollars, or Pounds, or Euros, or whatever you guys use. So lets dig a bit deeper: Who's going to benefit from the money it takes to develop and launch (excuse the pun) this technology. My guess is that you won't have to look very far to find out.
Let me ask you this: Who's building these satellites and the rockets that will put them in orbit? Which of your Lords and Ministers-or what ever they are called-is also sitting on their boards? Where does the money ultimately go?
Ya' know...It's a great idea to admit that somebody else has already done all the hard stuff, and go along for the ride, while you think of something brilliant and new to do...Or not so brilliant and new to do, like spend the money at home where the biggest problems lie. I'll bet there's the cry to create jobs somewhere in this GPS thing. Whaaa? No jobs created fixing infrastructure.(and yes, it's infrastructure, not intrastructure-there is no such word as intrastructure.)
So is this a case of keeping up with the Joneses, or trying to get ahead of the Joneses? Or is it just another way of shamming the bejesus out of the populace, to get big bucks to the Facistias?
You tell me!
f~
Tony Fyler
Thursday 15th July 2010 | 05:03 PM...in response to this comment by Rodney. Oh yeah Rodney, you're absolutely right - the more constellations are up there, and the more augmentation systems refine those systems, the more you can do with positioning technology - I spoke to Brad Parkinson, the genius (not a word I throw around lightly) who conceived GPS over a long weekend, and he's suggesting the work of the DARPA Grand Challenge could bear highway-bound fruit within a couple of decades - cars that drive themselves, in other words. Trust me, I have nothing against multiple systems. I just think it's depressingly typical that Europe as a political and economic entity has so comprehensively fumbled its attempt to do this. Again, you're right in that there was never a solid business case for the development of a European system. When it became clear that the user-pays civilian model wasn't going to (ahem) fly, that case became practically non-existent. It'll generate substantial downstream investment and what-have-you, but in terms of the fundamental reasons we're still ploughing ahead with it, it now seems to be a case of "well, we've come this far..."
Firendo, you have a point too - that was why the initial version of Galileo broke down - the companies in each of the EU countries were interlinked with members of national governments, and no-one would back down and lose a slice of the (still technically non-existent) pie. No real evidence that it's any different this time around either.
And lol - yeah, that's me - atheism by the back-door of science and business blogging LMAO. Actually, it was you who suggested I blog about my job...(shrugs)...this is it. Wait till I come up with something on jammers and spoofers, that'll be fun ;o)
Friendo
Thursday 15th July 2010 | 08:06 AMJeez Tony...I think you're taking this non-Atheistic blogging suggestion a bit too seriously. However, I also notice that your sham Galileo/GPS article is just a bit too thinly veiled...Clever bastard!!! Admit it, you knew what you were doing all the time. It didn't take me long to discover the real motives behind your attack on the Catholic church in the article. Here's the straight poop.
"Galileo was at the cutting edge of human understanding when he published a work on planetary orbits early in the 17th century, and he must have been aware that his studies were in collision with orthodox Catholic principles. When the Catholic Church discovered his work, they brought their full force down on the apparently heretical Galileo. In 1615 the Church, through the Spanish Inquisition, forced Galileo to denounce his findings and forced him never to teach what he had discovered. But his work went on."
"Nearly 20 years later in 1633, Galileo again published his findings on the observed orbits of the planets and again the Spanish Inquisition was called into action. But they refused even to look through Galileos telescope, as they thought the devil could create illusions with such an instrument. To avoid being burnt at the stake Galileo again denounced his own work and he was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life. Astonishingly, it wasnt until 1992 that the Catholic Church, through Pope John Paul II, made a formal apology to Galileo and withdrew their accusations of heresy, and agreed that yes, the Earth does indeed revolve around the sun."
"Galileo was viewed as a heretic simply because he questioned the current thinking of a large religious organization, and threatened their institutional ego. As when a personal ego is threatened, the Church couldnt cope with the possibility of looking foolish, so instead they took the more convenient option and went on the attack against the source of truth; in this case it was Galileo."
In the immortal words of Galileo himself: All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
And the truth here is that you were trying to come in through the back door on this one. This is just the devious sidestepping of the real issue at hand that I have quickly come to expect from you. ;-#
f~