Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said yesterday (February 2, 2016) that the recent decommissioning of a GPS satellite led to difficulties for listeners receiving digital radio signals.
In a response to the reported issues, the BBC said: "The outages were caused by a rogue GPS satellite (SVN23), which was taken out of service in the evening of 26 January."
By Inside GNSS
Lockheed Martin announced today (February 3, 2016) that the first GPS III satellite successfully completed system-level Thermal Vacuum (TVAC) testing on December 23, validating the design of the entire assembled satellite.
TVAC is a rigorous test designed to prove a satellite’s integrity and operational capabilities by subjecting it to prolonged cycles of simulated space temperature extremes in a special depressurized chamber.
First GPS III satellite in acoustic testing last fall. Lockheed Martin photoHarris Corporation has announced that it will offer an all-digital navigation payload for GPS Block III space vehicles (SV) 11 and beyond.
By Inside GNSS
U.S. Senator John McCainIf approved, legislation halting the use of a Russian rocket engine could force delays in the launch of U.S. military satellites, including, potentially, GPS III spacecraft planned for launch beginning next year.
The bill, introduced this week by Sen. John McCain R-Arizona, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, would ban the use of Russian RD-180 rocket engines for the evolved expendable launch vehicle program (EELV).
By Inside GNSS
A couple of GPS anomalies struck yesterday (January 26, 2016), one systemic and the other delaying launch of the final Block IIF satellite.
By Inside GNSS
SBAS and RNSS: The Unsung Heroes of GNSS
Okay, if I had wanted to pander to GNSS fans, I might have called this, “Making Great Greater.”
But there are only so many superlatives that can be lathered on this remarkable technology before simple praise turns into hagiography.
So, it’s time once more to give a little love to those unsung heroes of GNSS: the augmentations and regional navigation satellite systems.
By Inside GNSS
Swift Navigation’s Piksi GPS receiverHaving started out with a crowd source–funded launch through Kickstarter followed by two rounds of more conventional venture capital backing — $2.6 million in 2014 and another $11 million last December — San Francisco, California–based Swift Navigation is going after a low-cost, high-precision market such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with its Piksi GPS receiver platform.
By Inside GNSS
The federal government is looking to small firms to help solve some of its toughest GPS-related technology problems with many of the projects focusing on countering jamming while others endeavor to simplify signal acquisition and improve links within the constellation. A recent spate of requests for proposals for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts have been released by various agencies. These include the following:
By Inside GNSS
Europe’s space community rang in the New Year with two of its brightest annual fixtures: the European Union (EU) Space Policy conference in Brussels and the European Space Agency (ESA) media briefing in Paris.
The events brought out all of the relevant voices and served to illustrate not only the disposition of materiel and troops but also their intent and even the level of morale.
By Peter Gutierrez
Working Papers explore the technical and scientific themes that underpin GNSS programs and applications. This regular column is coordinated by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Günter Hein, head of Europe’s Galileo Operations and Evolution.
With the support of the European Space Agency (ESA), a European team designed a frequency- and time-transfer process and validated its performance in a complex navigation test bed. This two-way time-transfer technology took advantage of the following:
By Günter W. Hein
The GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) system was developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), together with Airports Authority of India (AAI), to deploy and certify an operational satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS). The system’s service area covers the Indian Flight Information Region (FIR), with the capability of expanding to neighboring FIRs.
By Inside GNSS
Small GPS jammers, particularly the “personal privacy devices” readily available on the Internet, pose one of the greatest risks to the nation’s critical infrastructure, according to a now-public Homeland Security assessment.
By Dee Ann Divis
It will be a busy few weeks for GNSS satellite launches in January and February.
Up next is the Wednesday (January 20, 2016) is a launch of the fifth spacecraft for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). The Indian Space Research Organization plans to complete the IRNSS constellation with two additional launches in February and March.
By Inside GNSS
