Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
A Department of Transportation (DoT) plan that would establish limits on the power of transmissions from bands adjacent to GPS and other GNSS services will get its first hearing at a September 18 meeting in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
By Inside GNSS
Techniques to avoid aircraft collisions took center stage as aviation experts met in Washington this week to continue hammering out the standards essential to integrating unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the nation’s skies.
The standards are being developed by RTCA Special Committee 228 (SC-228), one of the family of committees operating through RTCA, Inc., which develops consensus standard for aviation, which are then adopted and put into real-world practice by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
By Inside GNSS
Precise GNSS measurements have revealed that the severe drought gripping the western United States in recent years is changing the landscape well beyond localized effects of water restrictions and browning lawns, according to scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego.
By Inside GNSS
NovAtel IMU-ISA-100CNovAtel Inc. has announced the addition of the IMU-ISA-100C as an inertial measurement Unit (IMU) option for its SPAN GNSS+INS line of positioning products.
According to the company, the IMU-ISA-100C is a high-performance, near–navigation-grade IMU that provides a solution for platform stabilization, general purpose navigation, photogrammetry, remote sensing, and ground mobile mapping applications.
By Inside GNSS
Members of Congress mapped out some rare common ground with both House and the Senate appropriators agreeing to not only fully fund nearly all elements of the GPS program next fiscal year but to add tens of millions to restore cutbacks in the procurement schedule for GPS III.
By Inside GNSS
The advantages of a digital navigation payload, a technology singled out by both the House and Senate for $20 million worth of research support, appears to be a key factor in the Air Force’s search for a new GPS III contractor.
The digital payload “is a direct complement to the Production Readiness Alternate Sources Sought released in June,” Air Force officials said in an emailed response to questions about the technology and how it fits into the ongoing search for new GPS III suppliers.
By Inside GNSS
Gen. John Hyten. USAF photoGeneral John E. Hyten became the 16th commander of Air Force Space Command, in a change-of-command ceremony at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado today (August 15, 2014), replacing General William L. Shelton.
General Mark A. Welsh III, Air Force Chief of Staff, presided over the ceremony.
By Inside GNSS
Universities must declare by August 22 if they will seek to lead a new federal research effort on unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), a contest that is expected to be fiercely competitive despite the low level of funding guaranteed for the program so far.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT) will host a workshop on September 18 to discuss implementation of a GPS Adjacent Band Compatibility (ABC) Assessment initiative.
[Updated September 18, 2014] The U.S. Air Force set GPS satellite SVN-68/PRN-09, launched on August 2, to healthy and usable last night (September 17, 2014). This brings the number of satellites transmitting the L2C signal to 14 and those transmitting the L5 signal to 07. The next GPS-IIF satellite, IIF-8/SVN-69, is tentatively scheduled for launch on Oct 29.
By Inside GNSS
Seventeen companies have now applied to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for permission to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for services that range from filmmaking and photography to oil flare stack monitoring, package delivery and real estate marketing.
A reported White House plan to rely on voluntary adoption of privacy best practices for unmanned aircraft operations appears unlikely to address concerns that the aerial vehicles will be used to spy on people in their homes or abused by law enforcement officials conducting surveillance.
The Global Positioning Systems (GPS) Directorate will host an open public forum on August 22 for the following NAVSTAR GPS public documents: IS-GPS-200 (Navigation User Interfaces), IS-GPS-705 (User Segment L5 Interfaces), IS-GPS-800 (User Segment L1C Interface), and ICD-GPS-870 (Navstar Next Generation GPS Operational Control Segment [OCX] to User Support Community Interfaces).
By Inside GNSS
