Austria 25 Euro Silver Niobium Coin 2006, European Satellite Navigation
Commemorating the use of Satellite Navigation in Europe, the 2006 edition of the Austrian Mint’s popular 25 euro Silver Niobium series.
The coin’s golden brown niobium core cleverly depicts a compass on the coin’s obverse, with the geographic coordinates showing the Austrian Mint’s exact location in Vienna etched over the eight cardinal points and year of issue. The outer silver ring contains both the country of issue (Republik Österreich, Republic of Austria) and face value, while on the reverse it depicts the different means of transport that make use of satellite navigation – plane, train, ship and motor vehicles – and bears the inscription “European Satellite Navigation” in German. The niobium core on this side shows numerous satellites orbiting the globe, their tracks spilling over into the silver ring.
With a maximum mintage of 65,000 pieces in Special Uncirculated quality only, the coin contains 9 grammes of 900 Fine silver in its outer ring and 6.5 grammes of 998 pure niobium.
quality: special uncirculated
collection: Silver-Niobium
face value: 25 Euro
date of issue: 01.03.2006
coin design: Thomas Pesendorfer, Herbert Wähner
diameter: 34.00 mm
alloy: Silver-Niobium
ring: Silber Ag 900; pill: Niob Nb 99,8; fine weight: 9.00 g; total weight: 17.15 g
Galileo - European Satellite Navigation
Galileo is a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) currently being built by the European Union (EU) and European Space Agency (ESA), intended for civilian use only. The €5 billion project is named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. One of the aims of Galileo is to provide an alternative high-precision positioning system upon which European nations can rely, independently from the Russian GLONASS and US GPS systems, in case they would be disabled by their operators. The use of basic (low-precision) Galileo services will be free and open to everyone. The high-precision capabilities will be available for paying commercial users. Galileo is intended to provide horizontal and vertical position measurements within 1-metre precision, and better positioning services at high latitudes than other positioning systems.In operation Galileo will use two ground operations centres, near Munich in Germany and in Fucino in Italy. In December 2010 EU ministers in Brussels voted Prague in the Czech Republic as the headquarters of the Galileo project.
On 21 October 2011 the first two of four operational satellites were launched to validate the system. The next two followed on 12 October 2012, making it "possible to test Galileo end-to-end". Once this In-Orbit Validation (IOV) phase has been completed, additional satellites will be launched to reach Initial Operational Capability (IOC) around mid-decade. The first determination of a position relying on signals emitted only from Galileo satellites was achieved on 12 March 2013. On 22 August 2014, two more satellites were launched from French Guiana but were injected into an incorrect orbit. Analysis indicated that the third stage of the Soyuz launch vehicle, the Fregat space tug, failed to correctly circularize the satellites' orbit, resulting in a semi-minor axis 3.7 Mm less than desired and a 5° inclination error.
As a further feature, Galileo will provide a unique global search and rescue (SAR) function. Satellites will be equipped with a transponder which will relay distress signals from the user's transmitter to the Rescue Co-ordination Centre, which will then initiate the rescue operation. At the same time, the system will provide a signal to the users, informing them that their situation has been detected and help is on the way. This latter feature is new and is considered a major upgrade compared to the existing GPS and GLONASS navigation systems, which do not provide feedback to the user. Tests in February 2014 found that for Galileo's search and rescue function, operating as part of the existing International Cospas-Sarsat Programme, 77% of simulated distress locations can be pinpointed within 2 km, and 95% within 5 km. Full completion of the 30-satellite Galileo system (27 operational and three active spares) is expected by 2019.