Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
A European GNSS Service Center (GSC), has opened in Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain to serve as an interface between the Galileo navigation system and user communities of the open and commercial services provided by the European GNSS system. The European GNSS Agency (GSA) will operate the facility.
The U.S. Air Force Space Command (AFSPC ) began testing modernized civil navigation (CNAV) message capabilities on the GPS L2C and L5 signals for the first time yesterday (June 15, 2013).
This first test period is scheduled to continue through July 1 (Julian Day 182), according to a Notice Advisory to NAVSTAR Users (NANU 2013034), although a tentative CNAV test plan shows the tests ending on June 29.
By Inside GNSS
White Sands Missile Range with locations of Locata equipment used in 2012 technology demonstration.The U.S. Air Force 746th Test Squadron (746 TS) has awarded TMC
Design Corporation a contract to install and integrate the Locata
Non‐GPS Based Positioning System (NGBPS) on White Sands Missile Range
(WSMR).
The head of Russia’s Aerospace Defense Forces (VKO) said four more GLONASS launches are planned for 2013.
“Three GLONASS satellites are scheduled to be launched on board a Proton carrier rocket in July from the Baikonur space center and another one is planned to be launched in December from the Plesetsk space center,” said Major General Alexander Golovko in a June 7 story for state news agency RIA Novosti.
By Inside GNSS
Member states of the European Patent OrganizationThe European Patent Office will award a brand-new prize for the best patented satellite technology in the 2013 European Satellite Navigation competition, or Galileo Masters.
The winner – or winners -will receive a detailed economic study on the market potential of theirinvention. They will also have chance at the EPO’s 2014 European Inventor Award.
By Inside GNSS
[Updated June 3, 2013] With the budget vise tightening, top Pentagon managers are readying some potentially dramatic changes to the GPS constellation — changes that promise to lower both the cost of the satellites and the expense of putting them into orbit.
The first changes would be subtle and are linked to buying the next block of GPS III satellites — a decision that sources confirm will be made by the end of September.
By Dee Ann Divis
A former officer in the Italian Air Force, Antonio Tajani has been vice-president of the European Commission (EC) since May 2008. Tajani is, however, also the current European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, which makes him top man at the European Union (EU) directorate-general that oversees the Europoean GNSS programs, particularly Galileo and the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS).
By Inside GNSS
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. PESTS
State of California, USA
√ The California Agriculture department is using collective intelligence and GPS to “report a pest.” State residents can download the new CDFA smartphone app and use it to photograph and report bad bugs when they see ‘em. Those with iPhones can choose to send GPS coordinates for quick response to invasive pest emergencies.
The fourth China Satellite Navigation Conference (CSNC 2013) wound up its three-day run on May 17 in Wuhan — by all measures a clear success for an event that has become the nation’s leading international GNSS forum.
A key take-away from the event: China is rapidly preparing to bring BeiDou products and technology into the international marketplace is encouraging its industry to build an internationally applicable knowledge base in standards, patent law, and intellectual property rights (IPR).
By Inside GNSS
Prof. Jingnan Liu, Chinese Academy of EngineeringSince announcing plans in late 2006 to build its own GNSS system — BeiDou-2 (BDS), China proceeded quickly to establish a fully operational regional system late last year with a clear plan to complete a global system by 2020.
Beginning with its first launch in April 2007, BDS has put 16 satellites in orbit, some in dual launches, with 14 BeiDou space vehicles currently transmitting healthy signals: 5 in geostationary orbits (GEO), 5 in inclined geosynchronous orbits (IGSO), and 4 middle Earth orbit (MEO) spacecraft.
By Inside GNSS
Di Qiu at the site of her current employerSIDEBAR: Di Qiu’s Compass Points
Landing all-weather aircraft safely in storms. Protecting sensitive data not only through encryption but based on the location at which it is being accessed. Ensuring that accurate and timely information reaches first responders responding to emergencies.
Although still in the early part of her career, Di Qiu has already made significant contributions to these crucial applications of navigation technology.
By Inside GNSS
Honestly, one gets the feeling that the European navigation community has finally had enough of talking and is ready to take Galileo out of the hands of politicians and put it into the hands of users, including businesses that can translate European GNSS into real products and services to be bought and sold.
The feeling has certainly been growing within the European navigation community, as evidenced by the conversations at the recent European Navigation Conference (ENC) in Vienna.
By Peter Gutierrez
Q: How do you deal with timing differences between GNSSs?
A: All GNSSs inherently depend on precise timekeeping to measure the satellite/receiver time of flight of signal propagation with sufficient accuracy to compute ranges/distances for multilateration calculations. Each GNSS ground segment therefore dedicates considerable effort to maintaining a highly stable atomic time scale as well as the corresponding offset to global standards such as UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).
By Inside GNSS
