With the target launch date of the Galileo satellite navigation system (Europe's answer to GPS) just three years away, a series of 'Galileo Application Days' is planned for this coming March.

The event will take place in an 'application village', and will aim to showcase the abilities of the system in an outdoor theatre consisting of different settings such as the countryside, the city, the harbour and the playground.

It will focus on six application areas – location-based services, road applications, precise positioning, public services, leisure and navigation systems development.

The programme will also provide a launch platform for the European Satellite Navigation Competition 2010, which is intended to bring together industry stakeholders from partner regions in an international 'ideas contest'.

 

The event will run from 3 to 5 March in Brussels, and will be hosted by the European GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA) and the Application Center for Satellite Navigation in Oberpfaffenhofen. This latter is the managing organisation for the competition.

The European Space Agency's Technology Transfer Programme Office (TPP) will be an official partner in the event, and aims to provide an insight into financing opportunities and tools for space spin-offs such as the ESA Investment Forum, which will take place at Stuttgart in May.

Galileo aims to provide navigational radio signals similar to or better than GPS, using a new constellation of 30 satellites. In future, tracking devices are likely to be designed to work with both technologies. It is scheduled to go live in 2013.