The largest maize maze in the world has opened in York, England, and fittingly, the maze design was created using space age technology.

Pioneering GPS equipment was employed to plot out the maze pathways. The system, based on the newly-released European Space Agency (ESA) EGNOS satellite, enabled the maze paths to be cut within 0.5 metres accuracy, allowing a much more detailed image to be produced. This is the first time this technology has been used in maze design.

Farmer Tom Pearcy found inspiration for his York Maze design in the 40th anniversary of Star Trek. Visitors could find themselves lost on board the Enterprise or wandering around inside a giant image of Spock’s head. At 32 acres, the York Maze is the biggest in the world, beating the current Guinness world record holder –Labyrinth Assenede Belgium — by 10 acres.

Maze Master Pearcy said, "I’m a big fan of Star Trek and wanted to do my bit to help mark the 40th anniversary. It gave me the opportunity to use some instantly recognizable images in the design. By using the GPS satellite technology I have been able to be much more creative."

The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) began initial operations in July 2005. During the Initial Operations Phase, the responsibility for providing the EGNOS signal and data will be transferred from ESA, which developed the satellite system, to the European Satellite Services Provider (ESSP), which will be responsible for operations.

The EGNOS open service, which will be free for users and support all except safety-of-life applications. The ESSP intends to have the system declared available for safety-of- life applications in 2007.

EGNOS augments signals provided by the U.S. GPS satellite navigation system and Russia’s Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System and has been under design, development and deployment since 1997.