Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Recent tests of GPS anti-jam antennas on small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at a Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) facility at Patuxent River, Maryland, showed encouraging results for preventing interruption of mission-critical data.
By Inside GNSS
With a key Galileo patent dispute now set to enter its third year the European Union (EU) is moving to monitor GNSS patents around the world — a move that should give it insight into the competitiveness of European positioning, navigation, and technology (PNT) companies and a heads-up about future intellectual property (IP) issues.
By Inside GNSS
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will soon be taking new applications for its unmanned aircraft assessment program — a project that gives potential government customers at local, state, and federal levels an impartial evaluation of the strengths and costs of different systems.
By Inside GNSS
Alaska Lieutenant Governor Mead TreadwellThree key associations of state officials are recommending that states pass legislation banning the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for surveillance unless the person being tracked has given permission or a warrant has been issued.
The associations also recommended banning UAVs from carrying weapons and emphasizing in state laws that both UAVs and their smaller cousins, model aircraft, be operated in ways that do not “present a nuisance to people or property.”
By Inside GNSS
[Updated August 15, 2013] Investors led by Harbinger Capital Partners have filed a $1.9 billion lawsuit against a trio of GPS receiver manufacturers over LightSquared, a now bankrupt firm that still hopes to build a wireless broadband network across the United States.
By Inside GNSS
A series of assertions in a recent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article regarding putative dissension between the Air Force and Navy over responsibilities for precise timing — a key element in GPS operations — has drawn a pointed rebuttal from the superintendent of the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO).
By Inside GNSS
Two British companies, QinetiQ and Nottingham Scientific Ltd (NSL), have partnered to demonstrate an Internet “cloud”-based technology that enables a wide range of high-volume, low-cost satellite navigation applications using Galileo’s Public Regulated Service (PRS).
The NSL-QinetiQ application allows a service provider to host secure navigation on one server in a back office, capture data from multiple locations and units, and subsequently verify the location of a remote user.
By Inside GNSS
USAF Col. Bernie Gruber, GPS Directorate. Air Force photoLast month, USAF Col. Bernard Gruber stepped down after three years of running the Global Positioning Systems Directorate at Los Angeles Air Force Base.
The GPS Directorate, originally established in 1974 as the NAVSTAR GPS Joint Program Office, is responsible for development, acquisition, fielding and sustainment of all GPS space segments: the modernized operational control segment (OCX), the next-generation GPS III satellites, and modernized GPS user equipment (MGUE).
By Inside GNSS
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued restricted category type certificates to a pair of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), a milestone that will lead to the first approved commercial UAS operations later this summer.
Issuing the type certificates is an important step toward the FAA’s goal of integrating UAS into the nation’s airspace. FAA officials announced the action last Friday (July 26, 2013).
By Inside GNSS
Tunis, where the new Galileo Euro-Med Cooperation Office (GEMCO) will open in October.A European-Union funded consortium invites companies and public agencies from Mediterranean countries in North Africa and the Middle East to submit ideas for extending Galileo GNSS and EGNOS use in the region.
Eligible ideas could be for a small pilot project or research study, a technical training plan, and/or a publication or article. The submission deadline is August 25, 2013.
The countries in the target area are Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, and Tunisia.
Dudley Barnfield, director, Boeing GPS ProgramsDudley Barnfield has joined the Boeing Government Space Systems (GSS) leadership team as director of the GPS programs. He will have oversight for the entire GPS portfolio, which includes the GPS IIF program and alternate architecture initiatives.
By Inside GNSS
In a Tuesday (July 23, 2013) hearing on two fatal school bus/truck collisions, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommended adoption of “connected vehicle technology” on all newly manufactured highway vehicles as a way to reduce such accidents.
Such collision-avoidance systems — similar to those used in civil aviation — would typically depend on real-time transmissions of the GNSS-derived locations of nearby vehicles to provide enhanced “situational awareness” to drivers.
By Inside GNSS
The GPS III Non-Flight Satellite Testbed (GNST) completed pathfinding activities at Lockheed Martin’s GPS III Processing Facility outside of Denver prior to it shipping to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Lockheed Martin photo Lockheed Martin has delivered a full-sized, functional prototype of the next generation GPS satellite to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The GPS III Non-Flight Satellite Testbed (GNST) arrived at the Cape on July 19 where it will be used to test facilities and pre-launch processes in advance of the arrival of the first GPS III flight satellites, which will undergo similar testing. The first flight GPS III satellite is expected to arrive at Cape Canaveral in 2014, ready for launch by the U.S. Air Force in 2015.
By Inside GNSS
