Environment Archives - Page 11 of 14 - Inside GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design

July 16, 2012

UAVs Vulnerable to Civil GPS Spoofing

University of Texas–Austin drone

In June a research team from the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) demonstrated for the first time that a civilian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can be commandeered in mid-flight by a civil GPS spoofing attack. The result will likely factor into the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) plans to draw up rules for integrating UAVs into U.S. airspace by 2015.

By Inside GNSS

July 5, 2012

Drones to the Rescue!

August 1994, early morning. Spain’s Central Pyrenees Mountains still in darkness.

At the outset of an ascent to a 3,000-meter peak along the international border, one of the co-authors encounters a group of tourist hikers who have begun searching for a colleague who had left the camp the previous evening. In the pre-sunrise gloom, helicopters cannot yet operate.

A week later, the body of the hiker is found. The rescue efforts came, unfortunately, too late.

By Inside GNSS

July 3, 2012

Mission Accomplished: ESA Turns Out the Lights on GIOVE-A

ESA expert inspecting GIOVE-A in clean room in Baikonur Space Center, Kazakhstan. ESA photo

With the first two Galileo in-orbit validation (IOV) spacecraft working well, the European Space Agency (ESA) has decided to end the mission of its pioneering GIOVE-A satellite that had long exceeded it original purpose and design life.

Meanwhile, with the next Galileo launch approaching, ESA has expanded its Radio Navigation Laboratory (RNL) to meet the testing needs of Europe’s GNSS program.

By Inside GNSS

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June 18, 2012

PNT Homeland Security Official Links GPS Interference to Wider Cybersecurity Concerns

The convergence of mobile communications, information, and navigation technologies is driving the need to re-examine interference and jamming issues within a broader national and international cybersecurity framework, a U.S. homeland security official told a recent conference on GNSS vulnerability.

By Inside GNSS

May 31, 2012

GSA Issues Second GNSS Market Report: 1.1 Billion Units by 2020

The European GNSS Agency (GSA) has published its second GNSS market report, including a special focus on maritime and surveying application markets and refining its projections of unit and sales revenue volumes through 2020.

According to the new GSA report, the worldwide GNSS market is growing rapidly with total market size expected to increase at an average of 13 percent per year until 2016. At that point, increasing market saturation, price erosion, and platform convergence will reduce the growth rate.

By Inside GNSS

April 30, 2012

Cybersecurity Bills Could Reshape GPS Anti-Interference Efforts

Legislation moving through Congress could reshape efforts to counter GPS interference as the government steps up its efforts to fight cybercrime and protect critical systems like the power grid and communications networks.

Though cybersecurity generally focuses on protecting information systems the broad definitions in some legislation now on the Hill appear to encompass GPS support systems, some user communities, and even the constellation itself.

By Inside GNSS

January 13, 2012

Winging It

FIGURE 1: Competitive group skydiving is currently judged by overlaying a grid on a photo and evaluating location of divers within its cells. Photo by Mark Harris.

»NovAtel Inc. wingsuit video

In 1589, at the age of 25, Galileo Galilei toiled up the 294 steps of a 55-meter bell tower in Pisa, Italy, where he was tutoring math students at the time.

According to his pupil and later biographer, Vincenzo Viviani, Galileo carried with him two cannonballs, one twice the weight of the other. When he reached the top of the tower, he went to the lower balcony of the tilted structure and dropped the two balls simultaneously.

By Inside GNSS

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November 16, 2011

EU Launches Two Navigation Satellites; Galileo is On Its Way

Europe’s first two Galileo satellites have reached their final operating orbits, opening the way for activating and testing their navigation payloads.

Marking the formal end of their launch and early operations phase (LEOP), on November 3, control of the satellites was passed from the CNES French space agency center in Toulouse to the Galileo Control Center (GCC) in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.

By Inside GNSS

LightSquared: Who Pays for GPS Receiver Fixes Yet to be Devised?

With more testing on the horizon and a potentially alarming homeland security report about to be released, LightSquared’s efforts to begin work on its proposed wireless broadband service are stuck in the procedural mud.

The delays, which are never good for a commercial company, are piling up just as the firm’s coffers are thinning and need to be replenished with a new round of fund raising.

By Dee Ann Divis

November 11, 2011

Homeland Security Studies Risks to GPS, Prompts Spoof-Proof Receiver Proposal

Although a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report on the risks posed by GPS disruptions has yet to be released, the analysis has inspired a proposal to create receivers capable of self-diagnosing spoofing attempts.

“The receiver is the first line of defense,” Logan Scott, president of LS Consulting, told members of the National Space-based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board this week.

By Inside GNSS

October 14, 2011

Galileo: At Long Last, Launch

Galileo IOV satellites attached to their launch dispenser and encapsulated beneath the fairing of their Soyuz ST-B launcher Credit: ESA – P. Carril

Launch of two Galileo in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites next week will bring Europe’s long-awaited (and much-delayed) GNSS program into a new phase.

Liftoff from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, is scheduled for Thursday, October 20, at 11:34 GMT (7:34 a.m. local time). Progress in the operations and news updates can be viewed online at the European Space Agency website.

By Inside GNSS

October 4, 2011

GNSS Systems Reports: Compass ICD, Expanded QZSS, GLONASS Launches, GPS Budget Issues, Galileo Reprofiling

[Updated October 3] All five of the world’s major satellite navigation systems are poised to offer new capability — if the money comes through — program representatives told attendees at the recent Institute of Navigation’s GNSS 2011 conference in Portland.

The satellite navigation systems in China, Japan, and the United States have each recently had new satellites added, while those in Russia and Europe are poised for new launches. Budgets are in flux for most systems, however, so it remains to be seen how the systems will advance over the next year.

By Inside GNSS

September 8, 2011

GPS III

FIGURE 1: GPS III On Orbit

In May 2008, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company received a contract from the U.S. Air Force to develop a new, third generation of GPS satellites. The GPS III space vehicle (SV) has been designed (Figure 1, see inset photo, above right) and is now being built to bring new future capabilities to both military and civil positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) users throughout the globe.

By Inside GNSS

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Environment

U.S. Officials Explore Use of the EU’s Galileo Secure Civil...

UAVs: Homeland Security Under Pressure to Take a Greater Role in ...

UAVs Vulnerable to Civil GPS Spoofing

Drones to the Rescue!

Mission Accomplished: ESA Turns Out the Lights on GIOVE-A

PNT Homeland Security Official Links GPS Interference to Wider Cybersecurity Concerns

GSA Issues Second GNSS Market Report: 1.1 Billion Units by 2020

Cybersecurity Bills Could Reshape GPS Anti-Interference Efforts

Winging It

EU Launches Two Navigation Satellites; Galileo is On Its Way

LightSquared: Who Pays for GPS Receiver Fixes Yet to be Devised?

Homeland Security Studies Risks to GPS, Prompts Spoof-Proof Receiver Proposal

Galileo: At Long Last, Launch

GNSS Systems Reports: Compass ICD, Expanded QZSS, GLONASS Launches, GPS Budget Issues, Galileo Reprofiling

GPS III