Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
With the Republican Party now entirely in charge of Washington’s prime policy real estate the neighborhood is going to change. The current residents are warily watching the newcomers take measurements for a major remodel of agencies, lobbying rules, national priorities, and international relationships, and everyone is assessing the implications of the new landscape.
By Dee Ann Divis
Trimble GSC900 Allows Precision ExcavationTrimble has announced that the Hitachi Construction Machinery’s ZX200X-5B semi-automatic excavator is now available in Japan with the GCS900 Grade Control System.
The system uses GNSS, laser, sonic, or total station technology, to position the heavy machinery’s blade or bucket in real-time, for significant reduction in material overages and improving the contractor’s productivity, the company said. The unit makes design surfaces, grades, and alignments accessible to the operator inside a cab, Trimble said.
By Inside GNSS
GPS seems to have come out of nowhere. There was no progression like eight-track tape to cassette to CD to MP3 player. One day we were driving around clueless of where we were, struggling with roadmaps bought as gas stations that couldn’t be folded back neatly once opened and — suddenly — there was an amiable female voice coming out of the dashboard offering directions to our destination and showing no signs of impatience when we made wrong turns.
From the author’s introduction to GPS for Everyone
GOES-R primary capabilities. NOAA imageA United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-series (GOES-R) for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, yesterday (November 19, 2016) headed for geosynchronous orbit.
By Inside GNSS
NovAtel’s GAJT-710ML antenna.Calgary, Canada-based NovAtel Inc. announced that the Canadian Army has successfully tested its GPS Anti-Jam Technology (GAJT) in live-fire conditions on the M777C1 howitzer.
GAJT protects GPS-based navigation and precise timing receivers from intentional jamming and accidental interference, Novatel said. The unit features a null-forming antenna system, which ensure satellite signals necessary to compute position and time are always available, the company said.
By Inside GNSS
Congress is back in Washington with a December 9 deadline to pass the 2017 Fiscal Year (FY17) federal budget and avoid a government shutdown.
Lawmakers are widely expected to pass another continuing resolution, or CR, leaving the final decisions on the FY17 budget until after President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January — an approach that could both help and hurt the Pentagon’s GPS modernization effort.
By Dee Ann Divis
NASA plans to launch the Cyclone GNSS (CYGNSS) hurricane mission aboard a Pegasus XL rocket on December 12 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. CYGNSS, which is NASA’s first Earth science small-satellite constellation, will help improve hurricane intensity, tracking, and storm surge forecasts, the agency said.
By Inside GNSS
NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission broke the Guinness World Record for highest altitude fix of a GPS signal, the agency announced this week. The MMS satellites, operating in a highly elliptical orbit, set the record at 43,500 miles above the Earth.
The four MMS satellites incorporate GPS measurements into their tracking systems for position and orbit calculations to guide tight formations, NASA said.
By Inside GNSS
Probably no one else could have accomplished Brad Parkinson’s bravura performance at the joint meeting of the Stanford PNT Symposium/Marconi Society earlier this month: in the morning sketch a “short history” of radio waves from Marconi to GPS and in the evening recount a brief retrospective on the Global Positioning System from its prehistory in the 1960s to its future in the 21st century.
And in between moderate a panel of past Marconi Fellows, among whom Parkinson is the latest addition.
By Inside GNSS
The 14th Conference on Space Weather, sponsored by the American Meteorological Society, and organized by the AMS Committee on Space Weather, will be held January 22 – 26 2017, as part of the 97th AMS Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
Online registration is open. Pre-registration prices end December 1, 2016.
By Inside GNSS
The deadline for abstracts for the 2017 JNC is February 15, 2017. Submit yours here.
The annual Joint Navigation Conference is a military positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) event hosted by the Institute of Navigation on behalf of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It will be held at the Dayton Convention Center in Dayton, Ohio and the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base nearby.
By Inside GNSS
Redondo Beach, CaliforniaThe 18th meeting of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board will take place at the Crowne Plaza Redondo Beach and Marina in Redondo Beach, California, U.S.A. on December 7-8, 2016.
By Inside GNSS
The Winspear Opera House and the Meyerson Symphony Center in the Downtown Dallas Arts DistrictAUVSI’s XPONENTIAL 2017, All Things Unmanned will take place at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas, U.S.A. from May 8 – 11, 2017.
Online registration is open. Early bird registration ends November 30, 2016. Onsite registration will be available.
By Inside GNSS
