Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
An executive summary of a special report by RTCA Inc. Special Committee 159 released today (May 27, 2011) indicates that GPS aviation receivers would experience serious interference from transmission planned by LightSquared in the upper portion of the 1525–1559 MHz spectrum adjacent to the GPS L1 band.
By Inside GNSS
The National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board will meet in Arlington, Virginia, on Thursday, June 9 and Friday June 10. The sessions are open to the public.
Among the agenda items are GPS modernization, interoperability with other GNSS systems, and future challenges to PNT service providers and users, such as protecting the emerging role of PNT in cyber networks, including the need for backups.
By Inside GNSS
Near Hotel Oranje (hotel photo)Spirent engineers will lead a two day training conference on the company’s simulation equipment at Hotel Oranje in Noordwijk, Netherlands on June 21 and 22 2011.
The conference will consist of 11 training sessions followed by 4 hands-on workshops.
Topics include:
By Inside GNSS
Septentrio has announced plans to release the AsteRx-m, a low-power GPS/GLONASS dual-frequency RTK receiver that is smaller than a credit card.
The new board, which will begin shipping in the third quarter of 2011, is aimed specifically at integration in handheld devices, mobile computing platforms, and other solutions requiring high accuracy combined with low power in applications where space is at a premium. The new receiver covers the functionality range from GPS-L1 only to full GPS-GLONASS L1-L2
By Inside GNSS
Steve Koles, president & CEO, Hemisphere GPSHemisphere GPS, Inc., has reported revenue growth of 41 percent and a return to profitability in the first quarter of 2011 for the three months ending March 31.
For the quarter, the Calgary, Alberta, Canada–based company generated $21.2 million in total revenues, compared to US$15.1 million in the first quarter of 2010. Revenues from all market segments increased in the first quarter of this year.
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. DON’T BLAME GPS
Humboldt-Tolyabe National Forest, Nevada USA
√ In the Pacific Northwest, in-car navigators often indicate “short cuts” through wilderness mountains—with tragic results. One victim survived 49 days before rescue in May. (Reports blamed GPS – not digital maps or wireless communication.) GPS.GOV straightens out misperceptions, for those who need a guardian angel, but just get a signal.
After many delays, two European navigation satellites will take a ride on a Soyuz launcher to middle earth orbit from Europe’s space center in Kourou, French Guiana on October 20 2011. If all goes well, this will begin the operational phase of Galileo, Europe’s GNSS.
By Inside GNSS
The GAGAN payload on GSAT-8 communications satellite takes off via an Airane-5 launcher on May 21 (Arianespace photo)India’s first GAGAN navigation payload on the GSAT-8 communications satellite was launched successfuly at 02:08 hrs IST on Saturday, May 21 2011, according to the Indian Satellite Research Organization (ISRO)
By Inside GNSS
Ran ChengqiAccording to a May 19 People’s Daily report, China will launch another eight Beidou navigation satellites before the end of next year.
Speaking at the second Chinese Satellite Navigation Academic Annual Meeting in Shanghai on May 18, Ran Chengqi, the director of the Chinese Satellite Navigation Administrative Office, said the overall testing of the Compass/BeiDou satellite navigation system will be finished on Oct. 10, 2011.
By Inside GNSS
Space geodesy and its applications for geosciences and space exploitation is the theme of the APSG 2011 workshop. It will be held at the RMIT University in Melbourne on June 23-25.
By Inside GNSS
After a long series of fits and starts, the Department of Homeland Security is tackling the issue of interference to the GPS signal. The agency has launched a study to assess the risks to GPS service from a variety of sources — a study that, at least on paper, will lead to a plan to mitigate interference.
Unfortunately, the effort will not directly address the one potential problem consuming the thoughts of the GPS community — widespread receiver overload from the high-powered mobile broadband service proposed by the Virginia firm LightSquared.
By Dee Ann Divis
Uninterrupted continuous positioning technology is no longer a "nice to have" option but, for many applications, a "must have" requirement. Mobile devices increasingly rely on position/location functionality, and users have little tolerance for gaps in service.
By Inside GNSS.jpg)
[UPDATED MAY 16] India’s GPS-Aided and GEO-Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) spacecraft will be carried into orbit on an Ariane-5 launcher from the European Space Agency (ESA) spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on May 21, 2011, according to an announcement from ISRO, the Indian space agency.
By Inside GNSS
