ENEIDE experiment fully successful

29 April 2005
ENEIDE experiment fully successful

The Eneide Mission to the International Space Station has come to a
successful end with the landing of ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori.
Alenia Spazio has carried out one of the most significant experiments on
board the latest Soyuz mission to the International Space Station.
ENEIDE (Egnos Italian Navigation Demonstration Experiment), that gives the
name to the mission, worked perfectly, enabling approximately 15 hours of
data gathering.
ENEIDE obtained the objective of verifying the reliability under extreme
conditions of the navigation signal provided by the GPS-Egnos satellite
system for the first time on board a manned space vehicle, thus making a
significant step forward in the definition of Galileo.

All this has been made possible thanks to the use of technology developed by
the Laben Division of Alenia Spazio and qualified within the European Space
Agency's Egnos programme.
The value of the experiment is the fact that ENEIDE will anticipate what
will be the operational characteristics of the European Galileo/Egnos system
for space, aeronautical and terrestrial navigation with very high safety
standard.

The experiment is based on the use of a multi-standard receiver (GPS +
Glonass + Egnos), built by Alenia Spazio and of an antenna installed on the
Soyuz vehicle.
Approximately 4 hours after launch, the astronaut will begin the experiment.
The on board receiver system will provide position and velocity of the
vehicle in real time together with data integrity. By a lap-top Vittori will
monitor the status of the experiment and the displayed data during approach
to the Station.
After the Russian capsule docks at the Space Station, the experiment will
continue in orbit during the 10 days of the mission.
The signals received by the GPS-Egnos system will be processed to calculate
the position and speed of Soyuz within one metre.
At the same time, the data will be stored to be processed after the re-entry
of the space vehicle.

The ENEIDE experiment may be considered as a precursor for other similar
experiments, which may be carried out as soon as the signal from the Galileo
satellite is available.
In the meantime, the construction of the new European satellite navigation
system is proceeding and the first experimental satellite of the
constellation, the Galileo System Test Bed (GSTB), will be launched by a
Soyuz vehicle at the end of 2005. The launch of the first 4 satellites and
the in orbit validation phase will be completed by the first semester of
2008.

Alenia Spazio is participating in the Galileo programme with the
responsibility for system engineering concerning all aspects of validation
and certification of the overall system, the production of on board and on
ground equipments and the integration of 30 satellites in its Integration
Centre in Rome.
As regards industrial activities, in addition to the range of products,
Alenia Spazio is also involved with Finmeccanica, through a consortium led
by Telespazio, in the design and realisation of the Galileo Test Range (GTR)
to develop equipment and services concerning the group of satellites within
Regione Lazio.



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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info