Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
China’s development and promotion of its BeiDou satellite navigation system not only has tremendous implications for that country’s government and finances, but this alternative to GPS also presents a variety of implications for the United States, according to a staff research report released by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
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
The State Department last week published its final rule that updates export controls on military GNSS receivers through the U.S. Munitions List (USML).
The State Department-controlled USML, governed by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), moves GNSS receivers out of the USML spacecraft systems and related articles category. Instead, GNSS receivers are now controlled under the guidance and navigation systems category.
By Inside GNSSHow do you win when you are really losing?
Play a different game, move the goalposts, change the rules.
For several years now, a series of would-be wireless broadband service providers have been attempting to convince the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to repurpose radio frequency spectrum near the GPS L1 band.
Past efforts have failed because of the transmissions’ demonstrated harmful effects on GPS and other GNSS signals. Now a new contender is trying to gain FCC’s approval by changing the way that those effects are measured.
By Inside GNSS
A cooperative network of government labs, funded by a hopeful broadband company, is now testing GPS receivers in a surprise program that will draw key federal agencies directly into an argument over GPS interference standards.
By Dee Ann Divis
Reasonable Expectations of Privacy and a discussion of privacy in the United States typically begins with the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which provides that “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” In U.S. v Katz, the U.S. Supreme Court found that this Fourth Amendment protection created an individual’s constitutional right to privacy.
By Ingo Baumann
Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James declared a critical Nunn-McCurdy breach on the GPS Next-Generation Operational Control System (OCX) today (June 30, 2016).
After a December 2015 Program “Deep Dive,” Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall placed the OCX program under significant Department of Defense (DoD) oversight with quarterly reviews.
By Inside GNSSSo, if everything had gone as planned, we would have a new ground control segment (OCX) operating a new generation of satellites (GPS III) as they launch into an expanded constellation in support of modernized military GPS user equipment (MGUE).
But then the best-laid plans. . . .
By Inside GNSS
Trends for marine accidents show rising numbers and costs that are mainly associated with collisions and groundings. Research indicates that about 60 percent of these accidents are caused by human error. The majority of them could have been avoided by providing suitable input to the navigation decision-making process, according to a 2008 report by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Marine Safety Committee. (See IMO 2008 in Additional Resources section near the end of this article.).
By Günter W. HeinAnyone who has sat through several iterations of a slide presentation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a better way to do things.
As speakers flip through an exhaustively vetted series of PowerPoint slides, squeezing out a new bullet point or two from one version to the next six months later, watching paint dry seems like a more productive — and briefer — use of one’s time. The agency sometimes brings a whole new meaning to the concept of geological time.
By Dee Ann Divis
The satellite-based NextGen program is in trouble — no question about it.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic modernization effort will likely cost triple its original $40-billion program budget and need an extra decade — until 2035 or beyond — to reach completion, according to 2014 testimony by Department of Transportation (DoT) Inspector General Calvin Scovel.
By Dee Ann DivisFor an organization with its name, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is a remarkably opaque public entity.
Such is the case with the agency’s inaction on requests by foreign GNSS services to waive the so-called FCC Part 25 rules that require licensing of non-Federal receive-only Earth stations (e.g., GNSS receivers) operating with non-U.S. licensed space stations (i.e., satellites).
Although at least one such request has reportedly been submitted, the FCC has not even acknowledged it, let alone moved to render a decision on the request.
By Inside GNSS
