Galileo: David Morris outlines UK’s role in project
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Britain left Galileo after Brexit, the EU’s £8billion satellite constellation which provides position, navigation and timing (PNT) services and is intended to rival the US’ Global Positioning System (GPS).
While the UK did invest in OneWeb as it scrambled to find alternatives, this low-Earth orbit constellation currently provides broadband services.
While this system has been tipped to one day be adapted to rival Galileo, according to Dr Leon Lobo, Head of the National Timing Centre at the National Physical Laboratory’s (NPL), the UK will develop “lots” more “solutions” to account for the loss of Galileo.
He told Express.co.uk: “There will be lots of solutions put forward.
“Whether it is low-Earth orbit constellations, medium-Earth orbit constellations, geostationary solutions and possibly other elements that could be considered.
“Many of these new capabilities have the ambition to deliver time. They are driving towards that position. So I think we will see a whole raft of things coming through.
“They will have different capabilities and different levels of resilience, levels of security.
“By virtue of being able to access all of these, including a new global navigation satellite system (GNSS) like Galileo should the UK choose to do that, is a huge step towards national resilience because we have alternatives and we are using alternatives, not just the one system that we all rely on, blindly in many cases.”
And many have tipped that OneWeb could certainly be one of those alternatives further down the line.
The UK bought a £400million share in OneWeb back in July 2020 when the company went bankrupt.
While the satellites provide signals in 3G, 5G, LTE and Wi-Fi for high-speed internet access, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is optimistic about the future capabilities of the constellation.
Speaking before the Science and Technology Committee back in February, the Business Minister said: “In terms of positioning, navigation and timing (PNT), which Galileo is all about, that is something that we could do ourselves.
“Some people say ‘we can’t do this, there is no way there we could do PNT outside Galileo’. I don’t happen to agree with this.
“I think through our strategic acquisition of our stake in OneWeb, that does give us a possibility for future capability in PNT.”
And Mr Kwarteng is not the only one who holds this view.
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Mark Boggett, CEO & Managing Partner of Seraphim Space told Express.co.uk: “OneWeb is a platform in space. They have been creating very efficient manufacturing to bring down the cost of satellites – the cost is lowering and lowering.
“What OneWeb could represent for the future is a platform to add other capability on to. One of those other capabilities could be PNT. It is about it being a low-cost platform in space that allows us to do more and more. “
And Mr Boggett added that the UK’s exclusion from Galileo has not left it limited in its options.
He told Express.co.uk: “There is a move by Governments around the world, not to focus on owning the space assets themselves, but to start working with commercial providers in order to be able to provide that capability.
“This is very much the trend at the moment. And I think that the UK can take advantage of that.
“And indeed, they have done in relation to OneWeb. They have made an investment and become a customer of one of the leading players.
“I believe that there are many other opportunities to do exactly the same.”
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