It will be difficult to reach
agreements with all of the states,
businesses and organizations
involved. However, I believe that too
much has been accomplished and the
goal too important to the European
community to allow it to falter. The
prestige of building the system and
the dependence upon a foreign
system of navigation otherwise,
both argue for a continuation of
Galileo. The European public also
favors a continuation according
to surveys. Yes, it will be delayed,
but I think the system will be built.
Technically, Galileo has much to
offer. Receivers that will track both
GPS and Galileo signals are easily
built. With two common frequencies
at L1 and L5/E5A the diversity
of signals will allow operation of
high precision receivers in much
more restricted environments. In
addition, for very high precision RTK
implementations the third frequency
on both the next generation GPS
satellites and the Galileo satellites
will dramatically improve the ability
to resolve the whole cycle of carrier
phase ambiguity. Though the
middle frequency is not common,
the Galileo E6 signal is actually a
better choice than the GPS L2 signal for ease in simultaneously resolving
ionospheric effects and determining
the whole cycle ambiguities. Again,
it would be a great disappointment
if Galileo does not happen.
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