Page 95 - ΝΑΥΤΙΚΑ ΧΡΟΝΙΚΑ - ΣΕΠΤΕΜΒΡΙΟΣ 2022

SAFER THE CONNECTION

BETWEEN SPACE AND

MARITIME THE OCEAN IS CLOSER AND

MORE INTACT THAN EVER

OPERATIONS: by Katherine Kavvada, communication capabilities to
Director for Innovation and Outreach,
Directorate General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS) European Commission

Finding out about Pytheas’s various
capacities as a geographer, astronomer,
sions and operations managed by
and explorer, I could not help but think security and safety-critical mis-
of him as a modern space explorer of the European Union and its Mem-
a distant era. And then I thought that ber States.
the times might be thousands of years Moreover, the Commission recently pro-
apart, yet the connection between posed establishing a sovereign secure
space and the ocean is closer and more space-based connectivity system to
intact than ever. provide satellite communication ser-
For all of us, space technologies are vices. It aims to deliver governmental
part of our daily personal and profes- and commercial services to protect
sional life, which is why the European critical infrastructures, surveillance,
Union is investing in space systems and and support for external action or crisis
applications. management. Its great differentiators
In brief, the EU Space Programme’s dif- revolve around low latency, a multi-or-
ferent components include: bital combination of services, global
Galileo - the Union’s unique navigation coverage, and cryptography. This secure
system, providing improved posi- connectivity programme rests highly on
tioning and timing information with innovation and technological advances,
significant positive implications for predominantly deriving from the New
many European services and users. Space ecosystem.
It counts more than 3.2 billion users Finally, the Space Situational Aware-
worldwide, which is clear proof of its ness (SSA) Programme aims to protect
sheer success and a kind reminder space infrastructures from collisions
that although GPS was the first, and other events like adverse space
Galileo is the best. weather.
Galileo is complemented by the With a single Space Programme answer-
European Geostationary Navigation ing to the needs of secure positioning,
Overlay Service (EGNOS) to provide observing, informing and communicating
safety-of-life navigation services to securely, the EU is ensuring the sover-
aviation, maritime, and land-based eignty, resilience, and security of the
users over most of Europe. European citizens.
Copernicus - the state-of-the-art Beyond space infrastructures, the Com-
European Earth Observation pro- mission has a role in stimulating the
gramme and the only one in the downstream ecosystem and creating
world that provides data and space-based applications and services.
information on the health of our Therefore, together with the European
planet. Users have full, free, and Union Agency for the Space Programme,
open access to this data, which is EUSPA, we also actively support Euro-
also processed to provide a set pean companies to take advantage of
of services based on reliable and the opportunities brought by space
near-real-time information. technologies.
GOVSATCOM - a programme that aims Today, nobody considers that the smart-
to provide secure, cost-efficient phone GPS, which is used to locate a

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