GNSS Hotspots | March 2015
1. NAVSTAR GETS THE AX
Seal Beach, California
1. NAVSTAR GETS THE AX
Seal Beach, California
1. STOP THE CAR!
Las Vegas, Nevada USA
1. SMART BALL
Portland, Oregon USA
√ Adidas has designed every official World Cup ball since 1970. And that’s not all! The Adidas Innovation Team in Portland, Oregon, spent 4 years on a smart soccer ball with a “six-axis MEMS accelerometer sensor package” that can detect speed, spin, strike and flight path data and whip it on over to the special GPS app on your iPhone. The app interprets the data for you, coaches you, and keeps a video to show your friends. On sale now for only $299.
JPL uses GPS to find Sierra Nevada water weight; Near collision of drone and regional jet prompts questions, West Antarctic ice sheet melt at “point of no return,” First Galileo FOC satellites at launch site, China’s GBAS tested in Tianjin
By Inside GNSS1. WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?
Detroit, Michigan USA
1. E-CROWDSHIPPING
Palo Alto, California USA
1. PAPER, PLEASE.
Silver Spring, Maryland USA
√ The USA will stop printing nautical charts next April, the end of a 150 year tradition. Why? “Declining demand, electronic and digital charts and federal budget realities,” said NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey. They will maintain and update PDFs of more than a thousand coastal charts and refer those who admire traditional lithography to private printers who can do the job.
1. EASY RIDER
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA
√ Not only has century-old American motorcycle manufacturer Harley Davidson used consumer focus groups for the first time to develop its newest “hogs,” it has responded to customers with a voice-activated touch-screen GPS unit, the first on a production model. Now the Easy Riders don’t have to wend their way to trouble, they can ask their chopper where to go.
1. LATE LAUNCHES
Cape Canaveral and Plesetsk
√ [updated April 1] After three delays, a single GLONASS-M satellite will go up from Plesetsk space center on April 26. The United States will send up SVN66, the fourth GPSIIF satellite— on an Atlas V launcher for the first time—during the early evening of May 15. It had been delayed from March.
1. TIMING IS EVERYTHING
Washington, D.C.