Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Work to integrate drones into the nation’s regular air traffic picked up speed over the last eight months as aviation regulators found new ways to permit unmanned flights while still keeping the skies safe for other aircraft.
In September 2014 the agency announced the first of what is now more than 450 waivers enabling commercial companies to begin for-profit operations in the United States.
By Inside GNSS
The federal Department of Transportation (DoT) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology has released the 2014 Federal Radionavigation Plan (FRP) signed by the U.S. secretaries of defense, transportation, and homeland security.
The FRP is published every two years and provides an overview of the current planning and policy for U.S. positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) systems.
One of 12 magnetograms recorded at Greenwich Observatory during the Great Geomagnetic Storm of 1859
1996 soccer game in the Midwest, (Rick Dikeman image)
Nouméa ground station after the flood
A pencil and a coffee cup show the size of NASA’s teeny tiny PhoneSat
Bonus Hotspot: Naro Tartaruga AUV
Pacific lamprey spawning (photo by Jeremy Monroe, Fresh Waters Illustrated)
“Return of the Bucentaurn to the Molo on Ascension Day”, by (Giovanni Antonio Canal) Canaletto
The U.S. Naval Observatory Alternate Master Clock at 2nd Space Operations Squadron, Schriever AFB in Colorado. This photo was taken in January, 2006 during the addition of a leap second. The USNO master clocks control GPS timing. They are accurate to within one second every 20 million years (Satellites are so picky! Humans, on the other hand, just want to know if we’re too late for lunch) USAF photo by A1C Jason Ridder. 
Detail of Compass/ BeiDou2 system diagram
Hotspot 6: Beluga A300 600ST
1. DISPOSABLE DRONES
Washington, D.C.
One of the first feature articles I wrote as a newly minted GNSS magazine editor 26 years ago was about an advanced rail traffic management system based on GPS that Burlington Northern, with the help of Rockwell Collins, had designed and implemented.
By Inside GNSS
Francisco Rovira-Más, Agricultural Robotics Laboratory, Universidad Politécnica de ValenciaNow that we have had GNSS-driven precision in the fields for nearly 20 years, with widespread and growing acceptance by farm vehicle manufacturers and farmers, what lies ahead for precision agriculture?
By Inside GNSS
Exelis, UrsaNav, Inc., the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T), and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) have entered into a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) to test and demonstrate enhanced Loran (e-LORAN) service from former LORAN-C sites.
These sites are the legacy ground-based radio navigation infrastructure of the decommissioned LORAN-C service that could be retained and upgraded to provide eLORAN low frequency service.
By Inside GNSS
Global navigation satellite systems provide position, velocity, and time (PVT) solutions to users whose receivers calculate position based on one-way ranging from satellites. As is well-understood, a key step in the positioning process involves a determination of the difference between the time of signal transmission identified in the satellite’s broadcast navigation message and the time of its reception by user equipment.
By Inside GNSS
Equations 2, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are finding increased application in both domestic and governmental applications. Small UAVs (maximum take off weight less than 20 kilograms) comprise the category of the smallest and lightest platforms that also fly at lower altitudes (under less than 150 meters).
Designs for this class of device have focused on creating UAVs that can operate in urban canyons or even inside buildings, fly along hallways, and carry listening and recording devices, transmitters, or miniature TV cameras.
By Inside GNSS
After three years in Chapter 11, the company whose planned wireless broadband system threatened to overload GPS receivers across the United States is preparing to emerge from bankruptcy.
By Dee Ann Divis
More than 3,000 delegates converged on China’s ancient capital of Xi’an last week to infuse the sixth China Satellite Navigation Conference (CSNC) with an energy reflecting the nation’s robust GNSS program.
By Inside GNSS
The Pink City from up there. Photo by Peter GutierrezJudging from the variety of questions being asked at a recent EGNOS flight demonstration, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) remains something of a mystery for many of Europe’s leading aviation writers.
EGNOS, you say? What’s EGNOS?
By Inside GNSS
The House Appropriations Committee voted May 13 to cut the White House request for civil GPS funding and a number of other GPS-related program at the Dept. of Transportation.
By Inside GNSS
GPS III satellites and their new ground system, both years behind schedule and hundreds of millions of dollars over budget, still may not be on track despite corrective actions, Air Force Secretary Deborah L. James told a U.S. Senate hearing recently.
By Inside GNSS
