The Growing Role of Space in Earth Observation and
Navigation
As a first collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA)
and the European Commission (EC), Galileo was extremely ambitious.
With hindsight, the desire to set up a public-private partnership
in competition with GPS was perhaps too ambitious. With the Global
Monitoring of the Environment and Security (GMES) programme now
taking shape as the second joint ESA-EC programme, VEGA reflects on
the lessons learned so far from Galileo and GMES.
The European space industry has a highly successful track record of
building and operating satellites, spanning nearly 40 years. In
recent years, the strategy has evolved to create larger programmes
with greater ambitions than was possible before. This trend has
suffered some difficulties, so why are collaborations like Galileo
and GMES proving difficult?
If we look under the covers of both programmes, we find similar
challenges arising mainly from complexity, demand for products and
funding of the development programme.
For the first time, ESA and the EC have set up satellite
programmes designed to compete on the commercial market and have
been looking to the private sector to co-fund them.
GMES and Galileo are the first two European space programmes
where commercial considerations have been taken into account from
the outset. Both can be viewed as systems of systems that require
the development of a business case, a feasible implementation plan
based on a thorough understanding of the underlying complexity and
an optimisation of the investment – finally translating technical
excellence into real-world benefits to serve a growing market.
Both aim at providing Europe with independent access to
information, and are important assets for global co-operation and
partnership – either as part of a Global Navigation Satellite
System (GNSS) or within the frame of a Global Earth Observation
System of Systems (GEOSS).
Both are engines for European innovation and economic growth and
need to be successful to assure the long-term success in European
industrial, economic and social endeavour.
So, how can we approach these programmes to maximise their
effectiveness? The Galileo and GMES programmes both produce
“interim products”, designed to be passed on to specialist
companies who add value to them to derive operational products and
services for end-users. It is these end-users, the real customers,
that drive the whole supply chain. Without them, there is no point
in launching the satellites in the first place.
These specialist companies will typically have their own product
strategy and good knowledge of the commercial and competitive
landscape around them. They need to establish the value of being
involved in such a programme and must be confident of the technical
and commercial path ahead of them. To do this they have generally
planned their developments through road maps, which show how the
proposed new products and services fit into their own corporate
plans and the meet the evolving demands of a wider market.
For typically small and specialised companies, to build an
investment case needs a good view of the market, confidence in
sustainable demand and, where time-to-market is relatively long, a
source of interim funding to support their activity.
Over a 30-year heritage in the design and operation of space
programmes, VEGA has been closely involved with the specification
and delivery of the interim products. Our work on Galileo and GMES
has led to an ever-closer involvement with the end-user suppliers,
the so-called “downstream” market. As a result we believe that
there are three important steps that the institutional bodies
should consider in order to make Galileo and GMES successful.
Firstly, we must be certain of a sustainable demand patterm. The
EC and national governments are important users of end-products for
the implementation of their policies. They can help to create a
framework in which a sustainable market can emerge by federating
their own demand. If they can consolidate their requirements, make
them clear to industry, and give a clear indication of the volumes
required and the amount they are prepared to pay, it will be much
easier for industry to plan investment and capacity building.
An example of this is present in Galileo, where we can see a
focus on key application areas, such as road and air traffic and
logistics. This allows development work to proceed with a clear
agenda, such as understanding and exploiting the interplay with
other technologies, for example for indoor navigation. VEGA is
supporting this drive as shareholders in the Centre for Satellite
Navigation in Hessen (CESAH) and through our use of modelling and
simulation in support of concept validation for new products.
Without a clear market driven agenda, this and other centres would
not emerge.
Secondly, cashflow during the early stages of a programme is key
to long-term success. The institutions can provide interim funding
in the form of R&D programmes, or more directly in the form of
contracts for products and services as early as possible. This
would follow the example of the US who are placing a number of
contracts for earth observation data.
Finally, since a space-based response to the end-users’
requirements may not be the only approach, a professional
communication and marketing campaign should be put in place in
order to build awareness and acceptance through managed brand
identities for Europe’s space programmes. This campaign would
target both application developers and end-users.
This is a tough challenge on the institutions, and in return,
industry must work hard to prove the benefits of what space has to
offer. The opportunities are great and only matched by the
intellect and ambition of the European industrial players. If the
commercial environment is secure, the intellect of our scientists
and technicians can achieve great things. When a partnership of
this breadth and depth emerges, the Galileo and GMES programmes can
both be viewed as major contributors to environmental protection
and economic well-being within a secure Europe.