Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Iridium Satellite LLC graphicThe Boeing Company has received a three-year, $153.5-million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to continue its efforts to augment GPS for military applications by exploiting the Iridium low earth orbit (LEO) communications satellite system.
By Glen Gibbons
GIOVE-A/B Double Difference Ambiguity Measurements, TU DelftResearchers at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), the Netherlands, succeeded this week in simultaneously tracking the GIOVE-A and GIOVE-B L1 Open Service signals in space, producing the first reported computation of a double-difference carrier phase integer ambiguity resolution on the first two experimental Galileo satellites in orbit.
By Glen Gibbons
GPS IIF satellite. Boeing imageThe Boeing Company has announced completion of the latest in a series of environmental tests of the first of 12 GPS IIF satellites, which confirm the mechanical integrity of the spacecraft.
Having apparently overcome technical problems that have delayed the program for several years, the program is now on track to deliver the first satellite to the U.S. Air Force this year, according to the company, with launch currently scheduled for the first half of 2009.
By Glen Gibbons
MN5010HSA convergence of a relatively new Singapore-based company, Rockwell semiconductor engineering background, and SiRF Technology’s SiRFstarIII will produce a new family of OEM GPS receivers from Micro Modular Technologies (MMT).
By incorporating the SiRF module, the MN5010HS GPS receiver module represents a departure from MMT’s use of GPS technology from u-Nav Microelectronics (now Atheros Communications GPS business unit). Established in 2005, MMT has also joined the roster of SiRF Technology value added manufacturers (VAMs).
By Glen Gibbons
Frequency Electronics, Inc. (FEI) has received an authorization to proceed (ATP) on a new contract to provide master clocks and microwave sources for payloads on the next-generation GPS IIIA satellites. Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company leads a team that will build the IIIA spacecraft under a recently announced Air Force contract.
According to FEI, the value of the contract, when finalized, could exceed $10 million with more than half of the work to be completed over the next 18 months.
By Glen Gibbons
GPS IIR satellite. Lockheed Martin photo.Suspected faulty components in a Delta II rocket are delaying the launch of the final two modernized GPS Block IIR satellites, possibly preventing the early broadcast of an L5 civil signal that faces a 2009 deadline for being on the air.
According to Air Force officials at the GPS Master Control Station, Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, and Patrick AFB near the Cape Canaveral launch site, the questionable component is the 40-second timer that triggers separation of the third stage booster from the GPS space vehicle. Affected are both the 20th Block IIR-M, which had been scheduled to launch this month with a civil L5 test signal enabled in the navigation payload, and GPS IIR-21.
By Glen Gibbons
Recent leadership appointments at Topcon Positioning Systems (TPS) reflect the company’s efforts to expand its focus from being a vendor of equipment for surveying, civil engineering, and construction to a broad-spectrum provider of positioning solutions drawing heavily on GNSS-based technologies.
By Glen Gibbons
MT ManagerXsens Technologies B.V. has announced the release of a new version of the MT Software Development Kit (SDK) and new firmware for all of the Enschede, The Netherlands¬based company’s inertial motion trackers: MTi, MTi-G and MTx.
The software and firmware contain predefined settings for optimized orientation output in several specific application areas. Applications relying on data output for orientation, stabilization, or navigation will benefit.
By Glen Gibbons
Fastrax Software GPS stackFinland’s Fastrax oy, which introduced a new generation of OEM GPS receivers earlier this year, has added a software receiver to its line-up.
Based on the Fastrax’s iSuite3 embedded software architecture used in the company’s iTrax03, and iTrax130) series of GPS receivers, the software receiver is designed for easy porting to a portable device’s central processing unit (CPU).
By Glen Gibbons
A team led by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company has won U. S. Air Force approval to build the GPS Block IIIA satellites under a contract valued at up to $3.568 billion.
The long-delayed decision was announced May 15. The acquisition covers the first of three sets of Block III satellites currently scheduled to begin launching in 2014.
By Glen Gibbons
A screen in the Galileo control room displays the spectra of signals received from GIOVE-B shortly after the spacecraft began transmitting navigation signals. ESA photo.Europe’s second Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element (GIOVE-B) satellite began transmitting navigation signals on May 7, including the common GPS-Galileo civil signal MBOC (multiplexed binary offset carrier).
Built under a cooperation between the European Space Agency (ESA) and European Union (EU), GIOVE-B was launched April 27 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The MBOC signal design will be used by the future GPS L1C broadcasts as well as the Galileo Open Service in accordance with an agreement drawn up in July 2007 between the EU and the United States.
Locked to an on-board passive hydrogen maser clock, the GIOVE-B signals will help improve positioning accuracy in challenging environments with multipath and interference as well as better penetration for indoor navigation.
By Inside GNSS
CNS-5000NovAtel, Inc., and KVH Industries took advantage of the auspicious occasion of the PLANS 2008 conference to launch their separately labeled but common-design versions of a GNSS/fiberoptic gyro (FOG) inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor.
By Inside GNSS
Hemisphere GPS has reported US$25.9 million in revenues for the first quarter of 2008, an increase of 56 percent from the year-earlier period (US$16.7 million) and a record for the company.
The company also reported record first quarter net income of $5.8 million, or $0.11, an increase of 169 percent compared to $2.2 million, or $0.05 per share, in the first quarter of 2007.
By Glen Gibbons
