Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
New Board Designation Expected This Fall
The leading U.S. panel of satellite navigation experts, the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Advisory Board (“PNT Advisory Board”) opened its June meeting with a renewed charter, a new chairman and seven new members.
By Dee Ann Divis
[Editor’s Note: This article was written and submitted by Mark Crews and John Betz.]
With the launch of the first next-generation GPS III satellite, GPS III Space Vehicle 01 (GPS III SV01), on December 23, 2018, the Global Positioning System (GPS) took a major step in modernizing technology and capability. The U.S. Air Force has continually improved GPS since the launch of the first GPS Block I satellite in 1978, and this ongoing modernization has provided new signals, greater accuracy, and increased robustness for civil and military users. After the first 10 GPS III satellites are launched over the next few years, up to 22 GPS III Follow-on (GPS IIIF) satellites will provide yet another step increase in GPS capabilities.
By Inside GNSS
I read with great enthusiasm Dee Ann Divis’ article New Chimera Signal Enhancement Could Spoof-Proof GPS Receivers. Logan Scott is one of the brightest people I know, and I very much enjoyed his presentation about Chimera last week at the National PNT Advisory Board’s public meeting in Alexandria, Virginia.
By Dana A. Goward
Passengers stranded at airports is not an uncommon occurrence, but when weather does not appear to be an issue, anxious travelers can get restless searching for answers.
Over the last day or two, a number of U.S. flights were canceled as aircraft were grounded and passengers were left scratching their heads.
By Stan Goff
Location privacy is on the minds of lawmakers from both parties with provisions about disclosure, data collection and sharing in more than half a dozen bills. There is also language in a House appropriations bill nixing the use of federal funds for GPS tracking.
By Dee Ann Divis
An increasing number of applications require accurate, reliable, and traceable signals for time and synchronization. Key fields of application include banking and finance, telecom networks and electricity grids. GMV’s WANTime is a new time service for the city of Madrid, Spain, distributed using the White-Rabbit network protocol over optical fiber. A pilot customer of the service is currently the Madrid Stock Exchange (Bolsa de Madrid), connected to GMV’s datacenter by a network link of around 50 kilometers.
By Inside GNSS
The House Appropriations Committee approved all but $10 million of the $1.758 billion requested by the White House for the GPS program.
By Dee Ann Divis
In the past few months, there have been articles in the press providing information and misinformation in advance of the GPS week rollover that occurred on April 6. Readers were warned to retire obsolete receivers, update software, check with manufacturers, and even perform testing of critical devices.
By John W. Betz
Curtis Hay is a Technical Fellow at General Motors, where he develops precise GNSS and map technology for safe and reliable autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles. He has appeared on many international stages, but while he very much enjoys traveling and meeting people in faraway lands, both for work and for pleasure, he knows where home is.
By Peter Gutierrez
Improvements to GPS performance are often incremental, achieved by squeezing better performance out of existing systems with clever tweaks, smarter analysis and sharper receivers. Then again, every once in a while, there’s a huge leap in the capabilities of the system itself—an advance so big that it makes you appreciate all over again the elegant wizardry of satellite navigation.
By Dee Ann Divis
The European Union-funded GNSS.asia H2020 project hosted a major roundtable discussion around the theme of “Europe Meets India” at the recent 2019 Munich Satellite Navigation Summit. The event was aimed at promoting cooperation between the GNSS research and industrial communities in Europe and Asia-Pacific.
By Inside GNSS
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is considering a contract for research and development of celestial-aided navigation technologies. The primary focus is to develop a Star Tracker that can reliably perform celestial sightings for sensor altitudes between 30,000 feet and 80,000 feet. The goal is to reduce the risks to guidance, navigation and control in GPS-denied environments, especially for operations over feature-poor terrain such as desert, water, snow and ice where existing terrain-aided methods may not be used for position, navigation, and timing (PNT) updates.
By Inside GNSS
The European GNSS Agency (GSA) together with air traffic management organization EUROCONTROL jointly held the 16th meeting of the RNP Approach Implementation Support Group (RAISG) together with the Aviation Grants program workshop at the GSA’s Prague headquarters.
By Inside GNSS
