Munich Satellite Navigation Summit 2009 Report

06 April 2009, 8:34pm

Famous international Satnav-Congress closed after successful three days conferencing – Guest speaker Bradford Parkinson disussed “Competition among the big four”

Photo: Prof. Bernd Eissfeller - Director of the Institute of Geodesy & Navigation

Opening in Court Church of All Saints

The Munich Satellite Navigation Summit 2009 was held March 3rd-5th 2009 in the “Residence Munich” in Germany. About 450 participants from 25 nations joined this prominent forum in the field of satellite navigation. The opening plenary panel was inaugurated by the head of the organising institution, Prof. Bernd Eissfeller, who became the new Director of the Institute of Geodesy and Navigation of the University FAF Munich. Eissfeller described the Munich Summit as being not only a technical conference but also a forum for discussion of current problems in satellite navigation. The Institute organized the Munich Satellite Navigation Summit for the seventh time.

Bavaria meets the world

Martin Zeil, the Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology was the first speaker during the opening session. He pointed out that the Summit grew into a prestigious event during the last years. Furthermore as for the European Activities he expressed thanks to the ESA and the EU for the efforts done in the last months to pave the road so as to Galileo could finally come into operation. Further guests at the opening plenary were among others Fotis Karamitsos from the Directorate-General for Energy and Transport European Commision in Brussels and Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director General from France. The later gave a short overview of all the changes that have occurred in the navigation scene during the past years. ESA is now dealing with the important step to hand EGNOS over to future providers. Dordain pointed out that GIOVE A and GIOVE B are already in space and deliver information valuable particularly for researchers worldwide. Europe is making important steps in satellite navigation and progresses quickly.

Father of GPS

Special guest speaker Bradford Parkinson – the father of GPS - chaired the last session named “The Competition among the Big Four”. High-ranking officials and representatives of the four global satellite navigation providers discussed and commented the started race in GNSS. Parkinson asked whether the set of multiple global navigation systems will lead rather to competition or to cooperation. Michael E. Shaw, Director of the U.S. National Space Based PNT Coordination Office in Washington D.C. explained that fair competition means no preferential treatment and freedom of choice. If this is provided, the overall costs will decrease. Shaw also insisted that interoperability has to be realised in a proper way in order to be able to pave the way to interchangeability, which is a very interesting goal, but only a vision now.

Further speakers of the last session were Paul Verhoef, Head of Unit for Galileo and Intelligent Transport at the European Commission, Grigoriy G. Stupak, Deputy General Director of the Russian Institute of Space Device Engineering and Yin Jun, Director of Division of European Affairs at the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.

Exhibition & Future Prospects

This year´s exhibition was fully booked as well as last year. The companies had the opportunity to present their innovative products and activities in the charming atmosphere of Residence Munich.

The next Munich Satellite Navigation Summit will be held at the beginning of 2010. Register in time & get more information on
the link below or by e-mail at:
info@munich-satellite-navigation-summit.org

Munich Satellite Navigation Summit web site

Heike Haas Institute of Geodesy and Navigation Uni

Institute of Geodesy and Navigation