Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
SpectraTime has announced it has been awarded a €1-million contract to improve rubidium atomic frequency standards (RAFS) as part of the European Space Agency (ESA) GNSS Evolution Program.
SpectraTime is the existing supplier of atomic clocks for the Galileo satellites and other GNSS systems, including China’s Compass/BeiDou-2 program.
By Inside GNSS
Raytheon Company and Lockheed Martin have successfully completed the first significant integration milestone between Raytheon’s Next Generation GPS Operational Control System (OCX) and Lockheed Martin’s GPS III satellite development.
By Inside GNSS
News sources indicate that the first Beidou-2 dual launch will take place in April or possibly May. A Long March 3B rocket will carry two middle Earth orbiting (MEO) satellites (M3 and M4) into orbit.
In addition to being the first dual launch of Compass satellites, this will be the first launch of MEO spacecraft since April 14, 2007, when the Chinese GNSS program put the initial second-generation BeiDou satellite into orbit. So far, Compass M1 is the only MEO satellite in the BeiDou-2 constellation.
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
1. DEAD IN THE WATER
San Francisco, California and Washington D.C., USA
Rohde & Schwarz SMBV100A vector signal generator/GNSS simulatorRohde & Schwarz, based in Munich, Germany, has launched two extensions to the GNSS simulator in its SMBV100A vector signal generator: GLONASS and GPS P-code capability.
The SMBV100A already had the capability to generate a range of GPS and Galileo civil signals as well as wireless standards, including GSM/EDGE, 3GPP with HSPA, LTE, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.
By Inside GNSS
Loctronix Corporation, a provider of unified positioning solutions for mobile devices, has announced that the company successfully demonstrated the ability of its Mobile Explorer Platform (MEP) to provide meter-level accuracy position and navigation information indoors.
The product was shown publicly for the first time during the telecommunication industry’s recent Mobile World Congress (MWC) conference in Barcelona, Spain.
By Inside GNSS
IFEN GmbH and WORK Microwave have announced a new round of enhancements to the NavX-NCS line of GNSS multi-frequency simulators.
Increased usability and control is achieved through the new NCS Control Center software release V1.7, according to the Germany-based companies. The GNSS simulators now feature motion models that simulate the physical behavior of various types of vehicles or vessels, including airplanes, trains, cars, trucks, and ships.
By Inside GNSS
Galileo by Irina of Romania[Updated March 27] We see lots of graphs, schemata, renderings and photographic images of the GNSS satellites and constellations. Perhaps it’s time to rest the eyes with imaginative images of space and satellites through the eyes of children.
Over a number of years, up to 30 of Europe’s Galileo navigation satellites are expected to reach orbit and each of them will be named after a child from one of the 27 European Union countries.
By Inside GNSS
OPERA neutrino experiment at the Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy. (Photo: LNGS)[Updated March 26, 2012] Six experts debatd the exciting – and controversial – claims of faster-than-light neutrinos from physicists who used the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle accelerator, in a European experiment that called into question the basics of modern physics.
By Inside GNSS
The 2012 European Satellite Navigation Competition will accept your idea, innovative service or business plan for GNSS applications beginning April 1. Submit your idea online at www.galileo-masters.eu through June 30.
This year, the competition is working with 20 partner regions in Europe, Brazil, the Middle East and North Africa. You do not have to be a resident of the partner regions in order to enter, however you must anticipate basing your business in one of them.
By Inside GNSS
SBIRS GEO-2 satellite in Baseline Integrated System Test (BIST-1). Lockheed Martin photo.The Air Force is poised to forego putting nuclear detonation detection sensors on the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellites, a decision that could complicate efforts to maintain the GPS system by hampering plans to launch multiple, lighter GPS satellites on a single rocket.
By Inside GNSS
GPS Partnership Council golf competition (USAF photo by Joe Juarez)Registration is open for the 2012 GPS Partnership Council meeting at the USAF Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles AFB, on Tuesday, May 1 and Wednesday, May 2. As always, participants can compete in a golf tournament on an optional third day of networking and camaraderie on Wednesday, May 3.
The registration deadline is April 27.
By Inside GNSS
Whenever the annual Munich Satellite Navigation Summit came around, some GNSS program was usually in the ascendant, while others had reversed direction or found themselves treading water. This year, perhaps for the first time, all four major providers had reason to celebrate as the event’s organizers cut the cake at their 10th birthday party.
By Inside GNSS
