Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Government watchdogs said in a new report that schedule slippages in the new GPS ground system — which in October had another four months added to its repeatedly extended schedule — are more of a factor in delays to GPS modernization than technical problems with the satellite’s payload.
By Dee Ann Divis
The navigation sensors for location-based services (LBS) are complex technical systems. Modern technical science can answer most questions about the optimality of particular position determination methods, signal processing algorithms, electronic circuits or similar well-defined problems, but the rigorous answer to the questions concerning the optimal LBS positioning sensor are still a big problem.
By Inside GNSS
One of 12 magnetograms recorded at Greenwich Observatory during the Great Geomagnetic Storm of 1859
1996 soccer game in the Midwest, (Rick Dikeman image)
Nouméa ground station after the flood
A pencil and a coffee cup show the size of NASA’s teeny tiny PhoneSat
Bonus Hotspot: Naro Tartaruga AUV
Pacific lamprey spawning (photo by Jeremy Monroe, Fresh Waters Illustrated)
“Return of the Bucentaurn to the Molo on Ascension Day”, by (Giovanni Antonio Canal) Canaletto
The U.S. Naval Observatory Alternate Master Clock at 2nd Space Operations Squadron, Schriever AFB in Colorado. This photo was taken in January, 2006 during the addition of a leap second. The USNO master clocks control GPS timing. They are accurate to within one second every 20 million years (Satellites are so picky! Humans, on the other hand, just want to know if we’re too late for lunch) USAF photo by A1C Jason Ridder. 
Detail of Compass/ BeiDou2 system diagram
Hotspot 6: Beluga A300 600ST
Highest altitude fix for a GPS signal, GNSS timing signals and hacking the Grid, Eagles act as drone countermeasures and rumors of a GNSS-nano-chip contributes to cash crisis in India
By Inside GNSSAmerican Election 2016 — now that was something, wasn’t it?
A national unpopularity contest. Sort of Commedia dell’arte meets Monty Python, directed by Todd Phillips, with a cameo appearance by Berlusconi.
Did we find it risible? Oh, yes, but were those tears of laughter, sorrow, or disbelief?
So, while we are collectively unpacking the meaning and nonsense from two years of political theater and telling each other our fortunes for the next four, what does it portend for GNSS?
Well, the tea leaves are a little unclear.
By Dee Ann Divis
With the Republican Party now entirely in charge of Washington’s prime policy real estate the neighborhood is going to change. The current residents are warily watching the newcomers take measurements for a major remodel of agencies, lobbying rules, national priorities, and international relationships, and everyone is assessing the implications of the new landscape.
By Dee Ann Divis
Trimble GSC900 Allows Precision ExcavationTrimble has announced that the Hitachi Construction Machinery’s ZX200X-5B semi-automatic excavator is now available in Japan with the GCS900 Grade Control System.
The system uses GNSS, laser, sonic, or total station technology, to position the heavy machinery’s blade or bucket in real-time, for significant reduction in material overages and improving the contractor’s productivity, the company said. The unit makes design surfaces, grades, and alignments accessible to the operator inside a cab, Trimble said.
By Inside GNSS
GPS seems to have come out of nowhere. There was no progression like eight-track tape to cassette to CD to MP3 player. One day we were driving around clueless of where we were, struggling with roadmaps bought as gas stations that couldn’t be folded back neatly once opened and — suddenly — there was an amiable female voice coming out of the dashboard offering directions to our destination and showing no signs of impatience when we made wrong turns.
From the author’s introduction to GPS for Everyone
GOES-R primary capabilities. NOAA imageA United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-series (GOES-R) for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, yesterday (November 19, 2016) headed for geosynchronous orbit.
By Inside GNSS
NovAtel’s GAJT-710ML antenna.Calgary, Canada-based NovAtel Inc. announced that the Canadian Army has successfully tested its GPS Anti-Jam Technology (GAJT) in live-fire conditions on the M777C1 howitzer.
GAJT protects GPS-based navigation and precise timing receivers from intentional jamming and accidental interference, Novatel said. The unit features a null-forming antenna system, which ensure satellite signals necessary to compute position and time are always available, the company said.
By Inside GNSS
Congress is back in Washington with a December 9 deadline to pass the 2017 Fiscal Year (FY17) federal budget and avoid a government shutdown.
Lawmakers are widely expected to pass another continuing resolution, or CR, leaving the final decisions on the FY17 budget until after President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January — an approach that could both help and hurt the Pentagon’s GPS modernization effort.
By Dee Ann Divis
NASA plans to launch the Cyclone GNSS (CYGNSS) hurricane mission aboard a Pegasus XL rocket on December 12 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. CYGNSS, which is NASA’s first Earth science small-satellite constellation, will help improve hurricane intensity, tracking, and storm surge forecasts, the agency said.
By Inside GNSS
NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission broke the Guinness World Record for highest altitude fix of a GPS signal, the agency announced this week. The MMS satellites, operating in a highly elliptical orbit, set the record at 43,500 miles above the Earth.
The four MMS satellites incorporate GPS measurements into their tracking systems for position and orbit calculations to guide tight formations, NASA said.
By Inside GNSS
Probably no one else could have accomplished Brad Parkinson’s bravura performance at the joint meeting of the Stanford PNT Symposium/Marconi Society earlier this month: in the morning sketch a “short history” of radio waves from Marconi to GPS and in the evening recount a brief retrospective on the Global Positioning System from its prehistory in the 1960s to its future in the 21st century.
And in between moderate a panel of past Marconi Fellows, among whom Parkinson is the latest addition.
By Inside GNSS
