Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
As international space agencies work to develop lunar PNT capabilities, exploration efforts have become more diverse and collaborative than ever before. The Moon is now an international exploration priority, with GNSS critical to lunar PNT development.
By Renee Knight
NASA is seeking PNT requirements for advanced air mobility when GPS is not available, but the ultimate solution may come in many forms.
At the recent FAA AAM Summit, NASA’s Parimal Kopardekar, one of the main movers in the advanced air mobility field, was asked to name some of the top operational challenges facing AAM in the near term.
By Brett Davis
Though widely used, GNSS is vulnerable, with the possibility of a widespread outage posing a major economic threat. Developing alternatives is critical, with such technologies the focus of a new report from the European Union’s Joint Research Centre (JRC).
By Inside GNSS
NASA’s Ames Research Center will leverage NextNav’s TerraPoiNT commercial grade network to capture inflight data on drone navigation, detection and collision avoidance as part of BVLOS testing for its urban air mobility (UAM) program.
By Renee Knight
In the wake of the latest COP session on international climate change, and as the world continues to deal with the effects of a warming planet, researchers say more and better data can help ameliorate the damage and provide answers on how to respond to it.
By Brett Davis
In a race with the U.S. to develop a laser communications network in space, China’s BeiDou GNSS has conducted an inter-satellite and satellite-ground station experiment using using lasers rather than the usual radio signals. The technology could potentially transmit data a million times faster than by radio signal to almost any location. Some experts say it could increase satnav accuracy by a factor of 6 to 40
By Inside GNSS
A 2023 lander in the moon’s Mare Crisium will carry the first GNSS receiver to that planet’s surface: the Navigation Early Investigation on Lunar surface (NEIL) receiver with software-defined radio (SDR) technology. The receiver will spring from agreements between the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the Italian firm Qascom srl.
By Inside GNSS
GeoOptics Inc. has upgraded its CICERO constellation of Earth-observation satellites to include advanced GNSS Reflectometry (GNSS-R).
By Inside GNSS
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s AFWERX program awarded a Phase II SBIR contract to Masten Space Systems to develop and demonstrate a lunar positioning and navigation network prototype. With functionality similar to GPS, the network will enhance cislunar security and awareness by enabling navigation and location tracking
By Inside GNSS
NASA’s Deep Space Atomic Clock is working toward giving far-flung space explorers more autonomy when navigating. In a new paper published in the journal Nature, the mission reports progress in their work to improve the ability of space-based atomic clocks to measure time consistently over long periods.
By Inside GNSS
NASA has awarded a contract to the University of Michigan for the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) for mission operations and closeout. A constellation of eight microsatellites, the system can view storms more frequently and in a way traditional satellites are unable to, increasing scientists’ ability to understand and predict hurricanes. The total value of the contract is approximately $39 million. The CYGNSS Science Operations Center is located at the University of Michigan.
By Inside GNSS
On Friday, May 7, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter left both Wright Brothers Field and the Perseverance Rover behind. Flying for 110 seconds, Ingenuity traveled 423 feet at a new height of 33 feet, capturing high resolution color images before landing at its new Red Planet home, which bears the tepid but significant name Airfield B. Ingenuity had become an operational scout in addition to its original role as a technology demonstrator.
By Inside GNSS
As of Friday, April 30 (local time), the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter had completed its fourth successful flight, exceeding expectations and moving from being a technical to an operational demonstrator.
By Inside GNSS
April 19th saw what some have christened “a second Wright Brothers moment”—namely, the successful first powered controlled flight by an aircraft on another world.
By Inside GNSS
The parachute deployed during the descent of the Mars Perseverance rover carried a special message for anyone who happened to be looking up from the Red Planet’s surface on February 18, 2021.
By Inside GNSS
