Cost effective long-term Galileo operations

Abstract

Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system is being developed under a series of publicly-funded phases and programmes, with the intention of being fully deployed and operated as a civil, commercial venture. Its development and early deployment/in-orbit validation (IOV) phases are being undertaken with a Joint Undertaking formed by the European Commission and the European Space Agency acting as the customer for the system. At completion of the IOV phase, the concessionaire will take over operations of the Galileo system for its planned twenty-year life. A key aspect in this strategy is the Public Private Partnership scheme adopted to fund the full Galileo system deployment phase, two thirds of which allocated as private investments and one third as public contribution. The IOV phase is expected to cover through public funds the cost of the full system design, while the deployment of ground and space facilities and infrastructure is limited to just what is required for an early validation of the system concept. The Galileo operations concessionaire will be responsible for the provision of additional funds to cover the recurring costs needed to deploy the full constellation plus relevant ground facilities and run the Galileo operations, exploiting the expected revenue opportunities. As a consequence of the concessionaire competition, the Galileo operations and logistic support infrastructure was initially developed such that the concessionaire could operate the system in a way that was compatible with the IOV facilities. This led to an Operations concept that was flexible enough to suit different bidders but not necessarily optimal in terms of required infrastructure or staff. A refinement of the Galileo's Operations model is likely to be undertaken by the selected operator in a way that exploits that particular group's assets and expertise while proving the necessary cost effectiveness. The baseline architecture has been developed in the Galileo design and development phases, which makes assumptions regarding the number and location of all ground elements, the different types of operator role, the management structure, etc. These assumptions may be changed by the concessionaire if this would lead to an improvement in the cost-effectiveness of long-term operations whilst still meeting the service specifications. This paper presents a short summary of the current baseline Galileo architecture and operations support and relates the relevant requirements to recurring support costs. It identifies the assumptions that drive these requirements and discusses the trade-offs and strategies available to a potential Galileo concessionaire in order to minimise the recurring costs associated with operating the Galileo system. In particular, the paper discusses the relative importance of estimating spacecraft lifetime for reducing operations costs. Spacecraft lifetime estimation will be achieved through close monitoring and trend analysis. The accuracy of those estimations, based on data collected at the GCC, will be shown to be a key factor in reducing programme costs. The possible impact of reliability modelling on the launch schedule for constellation replenishment is also discussed. It will be seen that significant cost savings are available to the concessionaire through rigorous analysis of the optimum timing for replenishment launches. Such analysis will play a major role in financial planning, timing of orders for new satellites and planning for technology upgrades in future spacecraft blocks. The impact of site selection on the Operations concept is also discussed, with particular focus on those sites currently regarded as most likely to host the facilities. Among other factors, local variations in man-power cost, governmental support and accessibility will be major drivers in determining the most economic geographical distribution for the Galileo Control Centres (GCCs). A number of European regional governments have already proposed local incentives in order to attract interest from the appointed Concessionaire. Finally, this paper discusses the long-term prospects for the Operations function in terms of steady-state manpower requirements and improved automation. As the system enters a more 'routine' operational phase, the shape and size of the Operations team are likely to change. Future trends in staffing and system automation are discussed in the context of improved efficiency while maintaining safety standards.