Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
First GPS III satellite in acoustic testing last fall. Lockheed Martin photoHarris Corporation has announced that it will offer an all-digital navigation payload for GPS Block III space vehicles (SV) 11 and beyond.
By Inside GNSS
The fourth IEEE international conference on Ubiquitous Positioning, Indoor Navigation and Location-Based Services (UPINLBS 2016) will take place on November 3 – 4, 2016 in Shanghai, China.
UPINLBS 2016 will feature technical papers and presentations on a variety of topics such as:
By Inside GNSS
Less than a month after Europe switched off most of its Loran transmitters, a problem with GPS satellite timing signal triggered alarms across the continent and caused an unknown number of outages, including the disruption of some features of critical infrastructure.
By Inside GNSS
U.S. Senator John McCainIf approved, legislation halting the use of a Russian rocket engine could force delays in the launch of U.S. military satellites, including, potentially, GPS III spacecraft planned for launch beginning next year.
The bill, introduced this week by Sen. John McCain R-Arizona, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, would ban the use of Russian RD-180 rocket engines for the evolved expendable launch vehicle program (EELV).
By Inside GNSS
A couple of GPS anomalies struck yesterday (January 26, 2016), one systemic and the other delaying launch of the final Block IIF satellite.
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
Catching thieves in California, Galileo satellites test Einstein, Russian space agency remodel, and 911 training for operators who can’t read maps.
By Inside GNSS
Swift Navigation’s Piksi GPS receiverHaving started out with a crowd source–funded launch through Kickstarter followed by two rounds of more conventional venture capital backing — $2.6 million in 2014 and another $11 million last December — San Francisco, California–based Swift Navigation is going after a low-cost, high-precision market such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with its Piksi GPS receiver platform.
By Inside GNSS
The federal government is looking to small firms to help solve some of its toughest GPS-related technology problems with many of the projects focusing on countering jamming while others endeavor to simplify signal acquisition and improve links within the constellation. A recent spate of requests for proposals for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts have been released by various agencies. These include the following:
By Inside GNSS
White Night, St.Petersburg, RussiaThe 23rd International Conference on Integrated Navigation Systems will take place in St. Petersburg, Russia on May 30 – June 1, 2016.
The event is being held during the lively "White Nights" tourist season, when the sun stays up until 11 p.m. or later. Guided city tours will be arranged for the participants of the Conference.
By Inside GNSS
Small GPS jammers, particularly the “personal privacy devices” readily available on the Internet, pose one of the greatest risks to the nation’s critical infrastructure, according to a now-public Homeland Security assessment.
By Dee Ann Divis
Having settled its lawsuits against a trio of GPS receiver manufacturers, would-be broadband provider New LightSquared is now pointing to those settlements to support its assertion that it is fully addressing GPS interference issues.
By Inside GNSS
It will be a busy few weeks for GNSS satellite launches in January and February.
Up next is the Wednesday (January 20, 2016) is a launch of the fifth spacecraft for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). The Indian Space Research Organization plans to complete the IRNSS constellation with two additional launches in February and March.
By Inside GNSS
NTSB Chairman Christopher HartOnce again, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recommended GPS-aided positive train control (PTC) as one of its “most wanted” transportation safety improvements in 2016. But the agency, which has been advocating for PTC for more than 45 years, appears to be fighting an uphill battle against Congress and the railroad industry.
By Inside GNSS
