Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
The maritime sector drives the global economy, with ships transporting more than 80% of world trade. Ships and ports have come to rely on global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) for a huge array of applications relating to position, velocity and precise universal and local time.
By Ingo Baumann
Miguel Manteiga BautistaThe first generation of the Galileo Program, at satellite and ground segment level, has been “an enormous success,” according to Miguel Manteiga Bautista, who recently spoke with Inside GNSS at his office at the European Space Agency’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, Netherlands.
By Inside GNSS
Park rangers in Death Valley National Park have begun calling it “death by GPS.” Visitors faithfully following their navigation devices turn down the wrong road or hike away from help and die before rangers can reach them.
But it really isn’t the GPS, it’s the maps in their navigation system’s database.
By Dee Ann Divis
Mikel Miller’s favorite equationReturn to main article: "Mikel Miller: Science, Service, and Family"
COMPASS POINTS
GNSS event that most signified to you that GNSS had ‘arrived’
Testing of the initial handheld units from vendors such as Trimble’s two-channel GPS receiver and Rockwell Collins’ PLGR. “We thought, ‘What an amazing capability to have a handheld device that all you had to do was turn it on and it told you where you were – wow!’”
By Inside GNSS
The Miller family: Casey, Colleen, Mikel, Krista, Lauren, Trevor, and Megan.It has been a long journey to success for Mikel M. Miller, the U.S. Air Force’s lead scientist for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) science and technology development.
By Inside GNSS
Jade Morton’s favorite equationReturn to main article: "Jade Morton: The Long and Scintillating Road"
COMPASS POINTS
Engineering specialties
GNSS receiver data collection systems, GNSS receiver signal processing, GNSS for remote sensing of atmosphere and ionosphere, new navigation applications and technologies.
GNSS event that most signified to you that GNSS had ‘arrived’
By Inside GNSS
Jade Morton, in the front row at the right, with her sisters and grandmother
>>Jade Morton’s Compass Points
Yu — or Jade, in English — Morton is an electrical engineer, a professor at Colorado State University (bound for the University of Colorado Boulder in 2017), and a shining star in the world of GNSS. She left work for eight years to be a full-time mother, then returned to a university professorship and high-level research, where she has been recognized for her work on ionospheric effects on global navigation satellite systems.
By Inside GNSS
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 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
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
Return to main article: Sandy Kennedy: Here to Stay
COMPASS POINTS
Engineering specialties
Algorithm development, Kalman filtering, GNSS/INS integration, digital signal processing, embedded software, system integration
Favorite equation
Kennedy really likes the foundational differential equation, the basis of Kalman filtering, because it can become so many different things:
By Inside GNSS
Sandy Kennedy and her husband Arlin Amundrud>>Sandy Kennedy’s Compass Points
Sandy Kennedy grew up in Miami. Miami, Manitoba, Canada, that is — a town of 150 people with a school, a café, a defunct railroad station, and an ice skating rink.
Now she’s director and chief engineer in charge of receiver core cards at NovAtel Inc., a developer and manufacturer of high-precision GNSS products headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. It’s a long way from where she started, but then again, maybe not.
By Inside GNSS
