NovAtel Inc. announced a $142,000 (CDN) contract award by Public Works & Government Services Canada for an Interoperability study on the receiver requirements for Galileo. Galileo is the European Union's state-of-the-art Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), which is expected to be fully operable by 2008 with up to 30 satellites orbiting the earth.

This contract, sponsored in Canada by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), focuses principally on both GPS and Galileo receiver requirements and system performance. NovAtel will study the requirements for a combined GPS/Galileo receiver. The University of Calgary, also located in Calgary, Canada, will work under a subcontract to NovAtel to analyze the performance of the system using system constellation modeling techniques.

Currently, NovAtel supplies GPS navigational receivers to national satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) including the U.S. WAAS, the European EGNOS, Japanese MSAS, and Chinese SNAS. These complex receivers incorporate NovAtel’s Narrow Correlator tracking technology and MEDLL technologies, process WAAS signals from geostationary satellites, and include dual frequency L1/L2 signal reception.

The University of Calgary, through its Department of Geomatics Engineering, is a world leading academic institution in satellite-based navigation and positioning research and training of highly qualified personnel. Research related to GPS began 20 years ago, while involvement with Galileo began in 2000. More information is available on the website www.geomatics.ucalgary.ca