Several European countries are putting together a GPS-type satellite service of their own. But why?

From this article at the BBC, even proponents realize that “Galileo is a political project.”. There is an element in European politics that can’t stand to go without something the bigger countries already have (and are already sharing). The billions of euros of tax money going to local high-tech companies is being justified by a variety of reasons of mixed plausibility. Some of it descends into laughable propaganda.

“GPS is not good enough for safety-critical purposes like landing planes”. They better tell that to the thousands of North American aircraft that have been using GPS for navigation for a decade, and precise ILS-type landings for a year or so. Even though GPS signal coverage is fine worldwide, European aviation regulatory bodies have not embraced it. One may speculate that this is not for lack of data (decades of experience) or suggestion that the US military might deliberately degrade signal there (despite their own needs), but rather that there exists no major European manufacturer of GPS receiving equipment whom indirectly to support with such regulatory blessings.

From reading the ESA web page, they gloat that the assessed “cost/benefit ratio of 4.6 is higher than any other infrastructure project in Europe”. Ironically for a publication of a supremely technical organization, a high cost/benefit ratio is a bad thing. (One should desire maximum benefit at minimal cost, making an ideal cost/benefit ratio small. Same thing with “price/performance”.) While one may excuse this as a mere typo, I suspect it is a Freudian slip admitting that this government-funded body honestly believes that high cost (== higher budgets) is a good thing.

Well, whatever rationale they have constructed, it appears to have been good enough for their electorate. Maybe it will be completed on schedule (2010). Maybe I’ll get to use it, if real technical advantages justify purchasing the necessary new equipment. Or maybe it will become a good target for mild snickers from abroad. We’ll check back in a few years.