Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
The Russians may have taken a rain check, but Asian representatives were out in force at this year’s Munich Satellite Navigation Summit, held last week (March 25–27, 2014). The general message from China, Japan, and India was that they are moving forward quickly with their own GNSS systems, while seeking active cooperation, both technical and commercial, with international partners.
By Inside GNSS
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin more than $245 million in contract options to complete production of its seventh and eighth GPS Block III satellites.
The two space vehicles (SVs 07–08) received initial funding under a February 2013 long-lead material contract for the Air Force’s second set of four satellites, GPS III SV 05–08. Similar to this current award announced yesterday (April 1, 2014), the Air Force exercised an option to complete production of SVs 05–06 in December 2013.
By Inside GNSS
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced plans to establish within the next year a Center of Excellence (COE) for its Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Research, Engineering, and Development Program.
An FAA notice published last Friday (March 28, 2014) said that the agency will launch a competitive search for a team to lead the initiative as part of the FAA’s effort to integrate UAS into the National Airspace System (NAS). A draft solicitation will be available on or before April 18.
By Inside GNSS
NovAtel Inc. has announced that, with the release of its 6.400 firmware, NovAtel CORRECT positioning technology is now available with TerraStar’s precise point positioning (PPP) corrections.
By Inside GNSS
Less than 90 days after government watchdogs reported drivers are not being clearly informed about privacy risks posed by vehicle-location data, the head of the U.S. Senate’s privacy committee announced legislation to give consumers more control over how information about their whereabouts is collected and used.
By Inside GNSS
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) are enforcing limitations on who can use military airspace, a move that will curtail the number of possible places researchers can fly tests with unmanned aircraft.
By Inside GNSS
After an organizational hiccup led to its cancellation last year, the “reloaded” Munich Satellite Navigation Summit 2014 successfully re-established the event as Europe’s leading forum for GNSS policy dialog.
By Inside GNSS
Swiss-based u‑blox has introduced the CAM-M8Q GPS/GLONASS/BeiDou/QZSS antenna module. The module integrates a u-blox M8 satellite receiver IC plus SAW filter, LNA, TCXO, RTC, passives, and a pre-tuned GNSS chip antenna in a 9.6 x 14.0 x 1.95 mm package.
According to the company, the surface-mount antenna module combines low power consumption with high-sensitivity, high jamming immunity, and concurrent GNSS operation (GPS/GLONASS, GPS/BeiDou, or GLONASS/BeiDou), offering a drop-in solution product designers and system integrators.
By Inside GNSS
1. WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?
Detroit, Michigan USA
With the optimism of college-bound seniors touring the Ivy League, GPS managers have been weighing options to dramatically change the GPS constellation. Now, after studying the costs, considering the benefits, and assessing the funding climate, officials have made the starkly fiscal decision to stick close to home and take a few extra years to finish.
By Dee Ann Divis
The world’s GNSS systems are entering a phase of transformation — modernization of existing systems (the U.S. Global Positioning System and Russia’s GLONASS) and development of new systems (China’s BeiDou and Europe’s Galileo) that benefit from the lessons learned from the original GNSSs.
Notable among the modernization initiatives is an interest in implementing new satellite signal designs. These include the GPS L5, L2C, and L1C signals as well as those signals designed for Galileo and BeiDou. GLONASS designers are also working on modernized signals.
By Inside GNSS
Rules proposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to improve the ability to locate cell phone users placing emergency calls from indoors could affect firms providing chipsets and location-focused infrastructure as well as phone companies.
By Inside GNSS
Aviation officials are looking at combining data from the Air Force’s planned GPS ground system with services from other monitoring systems — or even relying on other systems entirely — to save money on monitoring the GPS civil signals.
By Inside GNSS
