Speaker
Description
Biography
Miguel Cordero joined the European Space Agency as Radionavigation Engineer in 2015. He has been providing support to the navigation programmes (EGNOS and Galileo) as well as to other missions making use of space GNSS receivers. Since 2020 he has been supporting the activities related to LEO-PNT carried out by the Agency including Celeste IOD mission. Before joining ESA he worked in the development of navigation modules for UAV autopilots.
Abstract
Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) services enabled by Global Navigation Satellite Systems are foundational to the functioning of modern society. Despite the significant impact of PNT in economy and society, GNSS systems face well-documented limitations. Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites have emerged as a promising solution to address these challenges. ESA’s LEO-PNT initiative, the Celeste In-Orbit Demonstrator (IOD) aims at validating enabling technologies such as frequency-diverse signal generation and transmission, on-board orbit determination and time synchronization, and advanced small satellite platforms, to demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of augmenting existing GNSS with a LEO-based layer. Beyond the Celeste IOD, ESA is working with the European Union towards defining a potential EU LEO-PNT operational system in complement to EGNOS and Galileo. The next phase, the Celeste In-Orbit Preparatory (IOP) phase under ESA’s FutureNAV programme, will encompass technology development, industrialisation and in-orbit validation. This phase will be instrumental in shaping future operational LEO-PNT initiatives institutional or commercial.
