Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Anyone who has gone to college is probably familiar with the idea of a capstone course. A final hurdle to clear in receiving a degree, students take such a course to demonstrate their practical knowledge by pulling together all of the main concepts taught throughout the program of study.
By Inside GNSS
FIGURE 1: Potential components of a multisensor integrated navigation systemThe navigation world is booming with new ideas at the moment to meet some of the greatest positioning challenges of our times. To realize demanding applications — such as reliable pedestrian navigation, lane identification, and robustness against interference, jamming and spoofing — we need to bring these different ideas together.
By Inside GNSS
Allure Shadow (top), structural clearances (bottom)The Boeing Company initiated the Unmanned Little Bird (ULB) program in the fall of 2003 to create a developmental platform for an optionally manned, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Initial flight test activity employed a modified MD530FF helicopter, with the first flight taking place on September 8, 2004. Six weeks later the program achieved a fully autonomous multiple waypoint demonstration flight from takeoff through landing.
By Inside GNSS
Deep military spending cuts set to kick in March 1 will likely slow efforts to modernize the GPS constellation, insiders agree, in large part because many of the personnel needed to push the program forward will be sitting at home, unpaid, one day out of every five.
The human impact of the deep cuts taking effect when sequestration kicks in on Friday was already evident in mid-February during the program review conference held by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.
By Inside GNSS
The Air Force will put the navigation message onto the civil L2C signal as part of a test it plans to conduct this summer, sources have told Inside GNSS.
The test will take place over a two-week period in June and will involve all of the satellites capable of broadcasting the signal.
By Inside GNSS
A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) study on receiver performance and increased availability to radio frequency spectrum reveals just how complicated the issue underlying the GPS/LightSquared controversy is.
On February 22, the GAO sent the report — entitled “Spectrum Management – Further Consideration of Options to Improve Receiver Performance Needed” — to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
By Inside GNSS
The core structure of the GPS III Non-Flight Satellite Testbed (GNST) stands in Lockheed Martin’s GPS III Processing Facility. Lockheed Martin photoWell, the lights work. So far, so good.
The Lockheed Martin team developing the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation GPS III satellites has turned on power to the system module of the program’s first spacecraft, designated GPS III Space Vehicle One (SV-1).
According to the prime contractor, the achievement is a key indication that the team is on track to deliver the first satellite for launch availability next year, although the actual first launch will probably take place in 2015.
By Inside GNSS
The Intelligent Transportation Society of America’s 23rd annual meeting and exposition will take place at the Gaylord Opryland convention center near Nashville, Tennessee on April 22, 23 and 24, 2013.
Discussions will focus on funding infrastructure, reducing gridlock and using ITS to improve safety of the nation’s vehicles and public transportation systems.
The opening plenary includes remarks by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and a roundtable keynote discussion on the future of telematics.
By Inside GNSS
Eastern South Dakota farmland, Coddington CountyThe Raven Innovation Summit 2013 will take place at the Sioux Falls Sheraton and Convention Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota from 3 p.m. on June 4 to 5 p.m. on June 5.
Raven Industries applied technology division develops GPS-guided steering systems and other precision agriculure products. Its electronic systems division (starlinkdgps.com) specializes in GPS navigation signal amplification and connection solutions.
By Inside GNSS
Jan Brecht-Clark, director, National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and TimingWith the urgent interference and patent controversies of the last two years largely resolved, the office tasked with helping sync the government’s GPS activities will take advantage of a lull in the action to plan a more strategic way forward — though that path does not currently appear to include talking to Congress about GPS civil funding.
By Inside GNSS
In 1997, AT&T’s Telstar 401 satellite failed, probably due to magnetic stormsThe annual Space Weather Workshop will take place on April 16-19 2013 at Millennium Harvest House Hotel in Boulder, Colorado. Registration opens on February 15.
Sunday, March 31 is the registration and abstract submission deadline.
This meeting will bring together customers, forecasters, vendors, and researchers of space weather information.
By Inside GNSS
Boeing engineers with GPS Block IIF on production line. Boeing photoThe U.S. Air Force has awarded The Boeing Company a $51 million to continue modernizing the GPS satellite constellation for up to five more years. The contract covers GPS IIF satellite shipment to the launch site in Florida, pre-launch preparation, post-launch checkout, handover, and on-orbit support. It has an initial one-year term with four one-year options.
By Inside GNSS
The U.S. Air Force GPS Directorate at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Califorinia, has awarded Lockheed Martin Space System Company a $62-million firm-fixed-price contract for GPS III Space Vehicles (SVs) 5 and 6 to be completed by June 30, 2017.
Funded under the federal Fiscal Year 2013 budget and announced February 8, construction will take place at the company’s facilities in Newtown, Pennsylvnia.
By Inside GNSS
