Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
COMPASS POINTS
Engineering specialties
Performance analysis of different GNSS configurations (multi-frequency multi-constellation) with and without augmentation. Integration of receiver subsystems starting with antenna design, receiver processing, interference and multipath mitigation algorithms, PVT including integrity monitoring, and hybridization using MEMS-based inertial sensors.
GNSS Event that most signified to you that GNSS had "arrived"
By Inside GNSSSo, if everything had gone as planned, we would have a new ground control segment (OCX) operating a new generation of satellites (GPS III) as they launch into an expanded constellation in support of modernized military GPS user equipment (MGUE).
But then the best-laid plans. . . .
By Inside GNSS
Carlo des Dorides, GSA Executive DirectorLast October, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) Administrative Board reelected Carlo des Dorides as executive director of the GSA, giving him a second — and final — four-year term in charge of this key agency responsible for supporting the effective operation, maintenance, and security of Europe’s satellite navigation systems. We met with him recently at the GSA office in Prague to learn how he plans to see out his mandate.
By Peter Gutierrez
Advanced military receivers using the sort of modern multi-channel, multi-constellation capabilities already available commercially, could enable the Air Force to focus its anti-jam efforts on the ground, simplifying future GPS satellites and lowering their cost. Moreover, experts told Inside GNSS, the cutting-edge receivers could be deployed years before the anti-jam capability planned for the new GPS III satellites would be fully available.
By Dee Ann Divis
Symbols and AcronymsModernized GPS satellites give civil users the ability to achieve dual L1/L2 PY accuracy using dual L1CA/L2C ionosphere-free measurements and, with IIF satellites, dual L1/L5 signals. Because broadcast GPS ephemeris data is based on an ionosphere-free pseudorange calculated from dual L1PY/L2PY measurements and the civil signals are not all perfectly aligned to it, new broadcast parameters and a new modernized dual-frequency algorithm are needed in order to align new signals with the dual L1/L2 PY signal.
By Inside GNSS
Belabbas with his children, Laila and Lunis.Boubeker Belabbas’ Compass Points
Boubeker Belabbas, an expert in aerospace mechanics and safety-critical GNSS applications, grew up in Bordeaux, a city of wine, and works in Munich, a city of beer. But he started out in the land of mint tea: a small village in the north of Algeria in the region called Kabylia.
By Inside GNSS
GNSS signals are vulnerable to interference due to being extremely weak when received on Earth’s surface. Therefore, even a low-power interference signal can easily disrupt the operation of commercial GNSS receivers within a range of several kilometers.
By Inside GNSS
Trends for marine accidents show rising numbers and costs that are mainly associated with collisions and groundings. Research indicates that about 60 percent of these accidents are caused by human error. The majority of them could have been avoided by providing suitable input to the navigation decision-making process, according to a 2008 report by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Marine Safety Committee. (See IMO 2008 in Additional Resources section near the end of this article.).
By Günter W. Hein
The results from the GPS receiver testing sponsored by would-be wireless broadband provider Ligado are in. A review of the nearly 600 pages of data and analysis suggests that a number of GPS receivers can — by the firm’s chosen, but somewhat controversial technical standard — operate in the presence of the company’s proposed wireless signals.
By Inside GNSS
The Senate Armed Services Committee zeroed out the Pentagon’s $393 funding request for the new GPS ground control system during its May 11 markup, asserting that the program’s cost overruns — with a total cost that may reach $5.3 billion, up from an original $1.5 billion — had breached the Nunn-McCurdy Act.
Under the act, such a breach could result in termination of the Next Generation Operational Control System or OCX unless the Secretary of Defense goes through an in-depth review of the program and personally certifies its critical importance.
By Inside GNSS
The seeming efficiency of having unmanned aircraft carry the same GNSS-based collision avoidance transmitters required for manned aircraft has generated a lot of interest as a possibly safe way to easily integrate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the nation’s air traffic control system.
By Inside GNSS
The USAF Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) announced today (May 5, 2016) the award of three contracts to support companies in preparing for the competition to build additional GPS Block III space vehicles (SVs).
The SMC’s GPS Directorate at Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, will award one GPS III Phase 1 Production Readiness Feasibility Assessment contract to each of the following companies: Boeing Network and Space Systems, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, and Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.
By Inside GNSS
Europe’s 11th and 12th Galileo satellites being prepared for launch in the clean room at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Photo: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique Vidéo du CSG/Hrouffie De FrancisciEurope’s latest navigation satellites, launched last December, have been officially commissioned into the Galileo constellation, and are now broadcasting working navigation signals.
Galileos 11 and 12 were launched together on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 17 December.
The satellites’ navigation payloads were submitted to a gamut of tests, centered on the European Space Agency’s Redu center in Belgium, which possesses a 20 meter-diameter antenna to analyze the satellites’ signals in great detail.
By Inside GNSS
