B: Applications

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.

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By Inside GNSS

Oh No! Not LightSquared Again!

Please.

Please. Please. Please. 

Can we please talk about something besides LightSquared?

Not yet? You mean, they are still here?

And we have so many other GNSS-related topics that deserve comment: 

Some peculiar cuts in civil GPS funds and GPS III budgets being proposed by congressional committees. 

A re-examination — aka analysis of alternatives — of GPS and PNT options in general. Space weather and an impending solar max. Warrantless GPS-aided tracking before the Supreme Court.

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By Inside GNSS

Network RTK and Reference Station Configuration

Q: What effect does network size have on NRTK positioning?

A: Network real-time kinematic (NRTK) positioning is nowadays a very common practice, not only in academia but also in the professional world. In the last 10 years, several networks of continuous operating reference stations (CORSs) were created to support users. These networks offer real-time services for NRTK positioning, providing centimeter-level positioning accuracy with an average distance of 25–35 kilometers between the reference stations.

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By Inside GNSS
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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.

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By Dee Ann Divis

Staying In Lane

Next-generation car navigation may well require the ability to identify the lane in which a vehicle is operating on a motorway. This could support advanced driver assistance in general as well as the observation and study of driver behavior and traffic flow. Such road vehicle applications call for sub-meter positioning accuracy, often in real-time — all this preferably at low-cost.

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By Inside GNSS

True3D HUD Wins Global SatNav Competition

Mike Rowe, host of the Discovery Channel series Dirty Jobs, gets behind the wheel with MVSC’s HUD system at the Makers Faire in San Mateo, California. MVSC CEO Chris Grabowski sits in the passenger seat; CTO Tom Zamojdo is in straw hat. Photo by Valerie Hall.

A San Francisco Bay Area company — Making Virtual Solid–California (MVSC), which snared a trio of awards in a global GNSS competition for its novel approach to driver assistance, is still in early phases of development.

The origins of the company, however, go back more than 40 years to the Cold War era when its principals, Chris Grabowski and Tom Zamojdo, were studying physics and theoretical mathematics at the University of Warsaw, Poland.

But more about that later — first, the news.

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By Inside GNSS
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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.

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By Inside GNSS
November 8, 2011

GPS Coalition To FCC: LightSquared Must Not Use Upper 10-MHz Band

A United States Army specialist explains GPS system to a Croation soldier in their mine-resistant, hardened vehicle, Afghanistan (2011 Photo: Brian Henriksen, US Army)

[Update November 9 2011] In an ex parte filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on November 8, a leading GPS advocacy group has asked that the agency “promptly rule” that LightSquared not be permitted to pursue high-powered terrestrial operations in the upper Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) band adjacent to the GPS L1 band.

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By Inside GNSS
October 20, 2011

Augmented Reality System Wins Top Prizes in 2011 European Satellite Navigation Competition

MVS-California, the 2011 USA Challenge winner, grabs the top prize at European Satellite Navigation Competition (pictured: ESNC organizers Thorsten Rudolph and Ulrike Daniels with Bavarian state minister Martin Zeil and winners Tom Zamojdo and Juliana Carnes Clegg. (The two women on the right are unidentified.)

MVS-California, LLC, winner of the USA Challenge, took the top global prize in this year’s European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) with the company’s True3D Head Up Display & Navigation System.
The company’s innovation is an augmented reality navigational display engine designed to provide non-distracting, translucent location guidance to untrained operators of any type of vehicle.

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By Inside GNSS
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