Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
GPS/cell phone jammerIt sounded like an excellent idea: convince Google to thwart on-line searches for GPS jammers, and, according to Bob Brewin, editor at large for nextgov.com, it worked — at least for a while.
By Inside GNSS
KVH Industries, Inc., of Middletown, Rhode Island, has introduced its new CG-5100 inertial measurement unit (IMU), which combines KVH fiber optic gyros (FOGs) and microelectro-mechanical system (MEMS) accelerometers to measure roll, pitch, and yaw angular rates and accelerations.
The CG-5100 is designed for stabilization, navigation, and autonomous vehicle applications requiring precision position, velocity, and attitude sensing capabilities, dependable backup for GPS in dynamic conditions or when GPS is unavailable.
By Inside GNSS
Paul Verhoef, GNSS Programs Manager, European CommissionAt this week’s (March 9–11) Munich Satellite Navigation Summit, Galileo program officials — public and private — acknowledged that it faces delays at both ends of its latest schedule.
At the near end, the lead contractor for the Galileo in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites that it is building with a consortium of companies said the first IOV will not launch in 2010 as per the most recent schedule. Instead, said Mike Healy, director of navigation for EADS Astrium, the satellite will not be ready for launch until probably February 2011.
By Inside GNSS
Prof. David Last at DSKTN symposiumThe noise floor seems to be rising on the subject of GNSS vulnerability to jamming and interference. Recently, the United Kingdom provided the locus for a trio of initiatives that reflect growing anxieties about the widespread global dependence of critical position, navigation, and timing (PNT) applications and infrastructures on the low-power signals from space.
By Inside GNSS
Raytheon Corporation graphicOfficials from the Space and Missile Systems Center’s Global Positioning Systems Wing announced today (February 25) the award of the Next Generation GPS Control Segment (OCX) contract to Raytheon Company, Intelligence & Information Systems, Aurora, Colorado.
With a baseline duration of 73 months, the OCX development contract has option years for sustainment worth a potential total of $1,535,147,916. Raytheon teammates include Boeing, ITT, Braxton Technologies, Infinity Systems Engineering, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
By Inside GNSS
TÜV SÜD, an independent third-party certifier, has awarded IFEN GmbH an official certificate affirming the conformance of IFEN’s NavX-NCS GNSS RF navigation constellation simulator with the Galileo Open Signal Signal-in-Space Interface Control Document (OS SIS ICD).
By Inside GNSS
Col. Bernard Gruber. USAF photo
Col. Bernard Gruber, currently the commander of the 45th Space Wing Operations Group at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, will take over command of the GPS Wing later this year.
Gruber served at the wing’s predecessor organization, the NAVSTAR GPS Joint Program Office (GPS JPO) in the early 1990s, where he was involved with user equipment acquisition including the Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) procurement. He will replace Col. David Madden, perhaps as soon as May. Gruber received his appointment as colonel in January 2006.
Quasi-Zenith satellite orbitThe Japanese Space Agency has selected a nickname for its first GNSS satellite: “Michibiki.” JAXA received more than 11,000 entries in its recent contest to raise national awareness of the GPS augmentation program.
The first of three Quasi-Zenith satellites will launch during the Japanese 2010 fiscal year, sometime before March 31, 2011.
By Inside GNSS
SWPC U.S. Total Electron Count MapThe U.S. National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) is inviting suggestions and opinions about the agency’s ionospheric weather products for the GPS constellation, today and on out through the next solar max, 2013–2014. Increased solar activity can magnify ionospheric scintillation and other phenomena that can affect the performance of GNSS receivers.
By Inside GNSS
Chinese Long March rocket with Compass / Beidou satellite payload launched January 17, 2010 (Photo by Qin Xian-an)China successfully launched another Compass satellite into geostationary orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern Sichuan province at about 0:12 a.m. Beijing Time on Sunday (January 17).
By Inside GNSS
Russia got its GNSS program back on track on December 14 with the launch of three modernized GLONASS-M satellites — resuming a schedule interrupted by problems with a navigation payload on an in-orbit spacecraft.
By Inside GNSS
Want to win $40k? DARPA gives you one day to locate 10 of these 8-foot weather balloons moored across the USA(Updated December 7, 2009) A Massachusetts Institute of Technology team won the DARPA Network Challenge on Saturday, December 5. They took home a $40,000 cash prize from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The team successfully located 10 eight-foot diameter, bright red weather balloons moored in plain site at locations across the United States.
Apparently, the DARPA personnel in charge were sensitive to frigid winter weather in the heartland – most of the balloons turned out to be moored in pleasant places for an outdoor December search: Portland, Oregon; San Francisco and Santa Barbara, California; Scottsdale, Arizona; Katy, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee; Atlanta, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Charlottesville, Virginia; and Christiana, Delaware.
By Inside GNSS
L-3 Interstate Electronics Corporation (IEC) has announced that its latest modernized GPS receiver has successfully acquired and tracked live block IIR-M satellite M-Code (pseudo–M-Code) signals indicating proper operation of many receiver functions.
