Agricultural and Energy Prices Driving GNSS Products and Services

From the perspective of consumers, the yearlong rise in commodity prices — from oil and natural gas to corn and wheat — has clouded the economic outlook. But for producers, including many GNSS manufacturers and service providers, those clouds have silver linings.

Recent financial reports from companies active in agricultural and natural resource markets bear this out. GNSS products used to guide and control equipment are in heavy demand as are real-time differential correction services, particularly those using global satellite-based systems.

Boeing Wins NRL Contract to Continue Iridium/GPS Development

The Boeing Company has received a three-year, $153.5-million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to continue its efforts to augment GPS for military applications by exploiting the Iridium low earth orbit (LEO) communications satellite system.

GNSS Album: Images and Spectral Signatures of the New GNSS Signals

Until now, civilian global satellite navigation systems (GNSS) receivers have had essentially only one signal, the GPS L1 C/A-code, reliably available for navigation. However, in the coming years, many more operational GNSS signals, systems, and frequencies will become available to civilian users.

What about WAAS Functions and Differential Biases?

Q: Do GNSS augmentation systems certified for aviation use, such as the GPS Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), have a function other than improving the accuracy of user navigation?

A: The short answer is yes.

SIDEREUS: Linking EU, Asia SMEs with Galileo Focus

A European initiative is seeking to link small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Asia and Europe through a series of one-on-one encounters between businesses operating in the aerospace and information and communication technology (ICT) sectors, with a special focus on Galileo-based satellite navigation applications.

IfEN Receives ESA EGNOS-Related Contract

The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded a contract to IfEN GmbH to develop a “New Generation” receiver breadboard for use at the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) Ranging and Integrity Monitoring Stations (RIMS).

The RIMS New Generation breadboard will be capable of receiving the new L2C and L5 signals, the Galileo E1, E5ab, and E6 signals and the GLONASS L1 signal in addition to GPS L1 and L2P signals.

Less Is More–The Potential of Partial IMUs for Land Vehicle Navigation

GPS provides reliable long-term navigation information but requires a direct line of sight between the GPS receiver and GPS satellites. On the other hand, an inertial measurement unit (IMU) offers continuous autonomous navigation information, but its accuracy degrades over time due to the cumulative errors of the inertial sensors.

The integration of GPS’s long-term stable accuracy with the continuous but short-term accuracy of an inertial navigation system (INS) can provide accurate and uninterrupted positioning for many difficult navigation scenarios.

DoT Rescues NDGPS Project

The Nationwide Differential Global Positioning System (NDGPS) program has been salvaged from the political limbo in which it has resided for more than a year.

Following completion of an assessment by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT), the agency has decided to continue full NDGPS operations. Currently, 86 stations are operating with support from three federal agencies: the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG, 39 sites), the Army Corps of Engineers (9 site), and the DoT (38 sites operated and maintained by the USCG under contract).

Astrium-Allsat JV Launches GNSS Reference Network Services across Europe

Astrium Services and Allsat GmbH network+services have created a joint venture, AXIO-NET GmbH, to offer precise navigation and positioning services across Europe.

The companies, which formed a JV in September 2007 to operate the German ascos service, have created a trans-European brand — AXIO-NET  — to extend the service, based on a network of reference stations that generate high-accuracy differential corrections of GPS and GLONASS satellite signals.

President’s 2009 Budget Proposal Directs DHS to Implement eLORAN

The Bush administration appears to have finally made a long-delayed decision to complete implementation of an enhanced LORAN (LOng RAnge Navigation) system to serve, in part, as a back-up to GPS.

Late in the drafting process of the Fiscal Year 2009 (FY09) budget proposal that went to Congress earlier this week (February 4), officials added language “migrating” the LORAN-C system from the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) to the Department of Homeland Security’s National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD). A $34.5-million budget and 294 positions would take part in the migration.