Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Consumer demand for positioning information is currently being met by a plethora of wireless positioning technologies. The most popular consumer positioning technology, GNSS, is only one option along with several methods that use cellular networks to provide location, such as wireless local area networks (WLANs), wireless personal area networks (WPANs), radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, and ultrawideband (UWB) communications.
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
ICG Program Officer Sharafat Gadimova[Updated Sept 7, 2011] The United Nations and the United States will co-sponsor a special meeting to commemorate 10 years of achievement on the global navigation satellite systems on December 12-16, 2011 at the United Nations office Vienna International Center in Vienna, Austria.
The main discussion will center around the International Committee on GNSS (ICG), created by The UN Office of Outer Space Affairs (OOSA) in 2005 to bring together all system providers and smooth the way for global development of the satellite navigation systems.
By Inside GNSS
IET headquarters, Savoy PlaceThe head of the Galileo program division of the UK’s space agency, the PRS expert at the European GNSS agency and the director of the Nottingham Geospatial Institute are just a few of the speakers at a one-day seminar in central London on October 5 called "Modernized Satellite Navigation: The Implementation of GNSS Programmes and Future Challenges."
The Wednesday event will take place at the IET Savoy Place conference center from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m
By Inside GNSS
The 43rd PTTI meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach in Long Beach, California on November 14-17, 2011.
Each year, experts meet to exchange precise time and time interval information at the user level, inform government and industry of the technology and its challenges, discuss new technology and review present and future PTTI requirements.
By Inside GNSS
eVotz plans to make the voting booth passé.The 2011 USA Challenge will give ION GNSS participants a chance to pick their favorite satellite navigation application from this year’s contest using eVotz, a mobile voting platform that won the competition last year.
By Inside GNSS
[Updated September 2, 2011] Amid White House efforts to keep a lid on the process and congressional hearings on the subject, the controversy surrounding LightSquared’s interference to GPS could compel the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to require another round of testing — this time of the wireless broadband company’s lower L-band frequencies.
By Inside GNSS
Now that Hurricane Irene and summer vacation have blown over, members of Congress are returning to Washington, D.C., to resume — among other things — addressing the question of LightSquared’s interference to GNSS.
A hearing originally scheduled for August 3 is back on the agenda for the U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee and now scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m. on September 8.
By Inside GNSS
Command and control of the second GPS Block IIF satellite has been turned over to the 50th Space Wing’s 2nd Space Operations Squadron (2SOP) at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, today (August 22, 2011).
The Space and Missile Systems Center’s (SMC) GPS Directorate, located at Los Angeles Air Force Base, retained control of the satellite during a 30-day on-orbit checkout period before the hand-off to 2 SOPS.
By Inside GNSS
Artist’s clay rendering of the USA Challenge “Oscar.” The five finalists will be awarded this statuette in bronze at ION GNSS 2011.Artist’s clay rendering of the USA Challenge “Oscar.” The five finalists will be awarded this stauette in bronze at ION GNSS 2011.Right now, six GNSS experts are poring over the GNSS spplications ideas and location-based services submitted to the 2011 USA Challenge, one of 23 regional contests in the European Satellite Navigation Competition.
By Inside GNSS
LightSquared has opened a new rhetorical front in its battle with the GPS community over the company’s efforts to convert L-band frequencies into terrestrial wireless broadband services: claiming in an August 11 letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that receiver manufacturers “chose to ignore” Department of Defense (DoD) standards.
In response, the Coalition to Save Our GPS, a group of GPS receiver manufacturers opposed to LightSquared’s plans, called the company’s filing an act of "desperation."
By Inside GNSS
Raytheon Corporation illustrationMembers of the Advanced Control Segment (OCX) team led by Raytheon Corporation are working through a series of issues that has delayed approval of a recent preliminary design review (PDR) on the key GPS modernization program.
By Inside GNSS
Do you use Topcon products in your daily life and work? If so, Topcon invites you to pick up your cell, your video camera or any other video recording device and show them what you do and how you do it.
Send in your two minute clip by October 1 – just point and shoot and upload, the company says.
By Inside GNSS
