GPS

September 21, 2012

NextGen Equipage Fund Takes Off While FAA Works to Cut Program Delays, Cost Overruns

A public-private partnership created to reduce the financial burden involved in implementing the nation’s GPS-based, next-generation (NextGen) air transportation system has raised its first rounds of financing and is now negotiating contracts with its charter customers.

“We have  . . . closed our first tranche of equity,” said Jim Hughey, senior vice-president of the NextGen Equipage Fund. The fund has secured a total of $100 million in commitments with some $40 million of that coming from leading aerospace companies.

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By Dee Ann Divis
September 20, 2012

What’s Happening at ION GNSS 2012

ION GNSS 2012 ienjoyed clear skies and warm temperatures at the Nashville Convention Center in Tennessee. The U.S. Institute of Navigation-sponsored venerable conference closed on Friday, September 21. 

Thursday’s workshops featured expanded discussion on China’s Compass/Beidou-2 and Europe’s  Galileo. Two more Beidou MEO satellites were launched during the conference for a total of 15. Meanwhile, Europe plans an October 10 launch that will bring the total to four. Speakers "guaranteed a 30 satellite constellation by 2020."

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By Inside GNSS
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September 12, 2012

2012 Trimble International User Conference

Trimble Dimensions, the 2012 International User Conference, will take place at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada from November 5 to 7.

Early-bird pricing has been extended to September 14.

The annual event targets surveying, engineering, construction, mapping, GIS, geospatial, infrastructure, utilities and field service management professionals who use positioning products developed and sold by Trimble companies. The companies include: Accubid, Applanix, Meridian Systems, OmniStar, Pacific Crest, PeopleNet, Plancal, QuickPen and Tekla.

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By Inside GNSS
September 11, 2012

GPS, Galileo Launches Near; GSA Opens Prague Office

The U.S. and European GNSS programs will launch satellites within a week of each other next month.

A GPS Block IIF satellite is scheduled to be lifted into space on October 4 and a second pair of Galileo in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites, on October 10.

Meanwhile, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) opened its new office in Prague, Czech Republic, last Thursday (September 6, 2012).

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By Inside GNSS
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September 4, 2012

International Symposium on GPS/GNSS 2012

The International Symposium on GPS/GNSS 2012 will take place on October 31, November 1 and November 2 in Xi’an, China.

The conference venue is Tianyu Gloria Grand Hotel Xian.

The event is organized by organized by College of Geology Engineering
and Geomatics, Chang’an University, the International Association of
Chinese Professionals in Global Positioning Systems (CPGPS) and the
National Time Service Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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By Inside GNSS

GPS Civil Funding

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has told those awaiting their slice of the GPS civil program budget that the funds are on the way.

The money, which is supposed to support that portion of the GPS program springing from the needs of civilian users, has been held up for months. In fact, as of late August — with less than 40 days left to go in the fiscal year — the money had not been transferred to either the military’s GPS Directorate or the National Coordination Office (NCO) for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT).

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By Dee Ann Divis

Improving GNSS Attitude Determination

This article describes an integration of a single-frequency GNSS, two-antenna heading system with low-cost inertial and magnetic field sensors in order to improve the availability and reliability of pure GNSS attitude determination. This method calculates a redundant attitude solution in an error-state Kalman filter using different sensor setups. As a result, the process of carrier phase ambiguity resolution accelerates.

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By Inside GNSS

Spoofs, Proofs & Jamming

“Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it. And then he feels that perhaps there isn’t.”
– A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Is our faith in the integrity and infallibility of the Global Positioning System misplaced or, perhaps, insufficiently grounded?

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By Inside GNSS

ESA GNSS Propagation Course 2012

Organized by the European Space Agency with the collaboration of a number of national space organizations, this intensive course will cover GNSS error sources related to radiowave propagation and interference effects.

It is aimed at engineers, geodesists, physicists and advanced students with appropriate degrees and a knowledge of GNSS fundamentals, statistics and signal processing.

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By Inside GNSS
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