Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Galileo IOV satellites attached to their launch dispenser and encapsulated beneath the fairing of their Soyuz ST-B launcher Credit: ESA – P. CarrilLaunch 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
[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
FIGURE 1: GPS III On OrbitIn 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
European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). ESA illustrationCiting European Space Agency (ESA) studies that showed “harmful interference” to Galileo receivers operating up to 1,000 kilometers from LightSquared base stations, a European Commission (EC) official has told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about his “deep concerns” about the wireless broadband company’s terrestrial transmissions in the 1525–1559 MHz band next to L1 GNSS frequencies.
By Inside GNSS
GPS III satellite. Lockheed Martin illustrationLockheed Martin has announced the successful, on-schedule completion of a system design review (SDR) for the second-phase of next-generation GPS satellite development, the IIIB increment.
The company’s Space Systems division in Newtown, Pennsylvania, is under contract to produce the first two of a planned eight GPS IIIA satellites, with first launch projected for 2014. The contract includes a Capability Insertion Program (CIP) designed to mature technologies and perform rigorous systems engineering for future GPS III increments.
By Inside GNSS
