GNSS

UK Government to explore new ways of delivering ‘Sat Nav’

New options for a UK satellite navigation and timing capability programme to support the nation’s critical infrastructure will be explored by the government.

The Space-Based Positioning Navigation and Timing Programme (SBPP) will explore new and alternative ways that could be used to deliver vital satellite navigation services to the United Kingdom which are critical for the functioning of transport systems, energy networks, mobile communications and national security and defence, whilst boosting the British space industry and developing the UK’s own capabilities in these services.

UK GNSS is an exploration programme which has developed outline plans for a conventional satellite system as an alternative to American GPS or the EU’s Galileo. The programme will now be reset as the SBPP to build on this work to consider newer, more innovative ideas of delivering global ‘sat nav’ and secure satellite services to meet public, government and industry needs.

Capitalising on the ingenuity of British businesses and academics, the programme will explore the use of different kinds of satellites at various levels of orbit by exploiting technologies offered by companies at the cuttingedge of innovation such as OneWeb, Inmarsat and Airbus. www.gov.uk

Rehabilitation of Mara ecosystem using GNSS technology

The Mau Forest Complex in the Rift Valley in Kenya is the largest indigenous montane forest in East Africa. A huntergatherer community lives sustainably in the forest. However, encroachment and illegal allocation of the forest has left large parts cleared for settlement, agricultural use and logging.

To assist in efforts to remove illegal settlers and settlements and to rehabilitate the forest complex, Survey of Kenya (SOK) demarcated the Mau Forest boundaries to precisely delineate forest cut lines and solve the problem of fuzzy boundaries that have contributed to human encroachment. To more safely perform the survey in disputed lands and difficult hostile terrain, SOK relied on the Spectra Geospatial SP80 GNSS receiver. The multi-constellation SP80 has the speed, accuracy, low-weight and ease-ofoperation that enabled the SOK survey team to work quickly and reduce survey time in disputed areas. www.trimble.com

Development phase of the GNC system by GMV

On 15 September, the European Space Agency (ESA) signed with the German company OHB the €129.4-million contract covering the detailed design, manufacturing, and testing of the HERA mission. This mission, ESA’s first ever planetary defense mission, will be Europe’s contribution to an international asteroid deflection effort carried out jointly with NASA and due for lift-off in October 2024. The contract takes in the complete design of the interplanetary probe, integration and tests, including an advanced Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) system that has been awarded to the technology multinational GMV as subcontractor of OHB. www.gmv.com

GRIFFIN – GPS J&S Rapid Threat Geo-Location

Under a recent Australian Government production demonstration contract, GPSat Systems has continued with both capability expansion and commercialization of it’s GRIFFIN precision Jamming & Spoofing (J&S) geolocation technology. It is uniquely optimised for working with extremely weak GPS RF satellite signals, well below the ambient RF noise floor. By employing phased array signal amplification processes, coupled with advanced spectrum cleansing/ whitening techniques to remove “known RF sources”, the GRIFFIN network of synchronised Sensor Nodes very accurately characterises and geolocates multiple RFI sources instantly.

Under this contract, the technology has now passed TRL7 milestone by successfully completing formal project stakeholder field demonstrations. With the effects of Covid19 manifesting towards project end, limiting the final production, fine tuning and the field demonstrations new work-arounds need to be implemented quickly.

Dr Y Jade Morton receives Kepler award

The Institute of Navigation’s (ION) Satellite Division presented Dr. Y. Jade Morton with its Johannes Kepler Award September 25, 2020 during the ION GNSS+ VIRTUAL Conference.

Dr. Morton was recognized for advances in scientific and navigation receiver technology, automated data collection, robust carrier phase tracking, remote sensing, and profound impact as an educator and author.

Dr. Y. Jade Morton has made pioneering contributions to the advancement of GNSS receiver technology and utilization of these enhanced capabilities for scientific discovery. Her work brings together scientific rigor with state-of-the-art engineering innovations to simultaneously improve PNT, while revealing remarkable new applications for GNSS.

Dr. Morton’s lab developed event-driven GNSS data acquisition systems (EDAS), designed to capture severe space weather and ionosphere disturbances of GNSS signals, which could not be handled by existing GNSS monitoring receivers. Her lab designed and built remotelyconfigurable, multi-GNSS, multi-band, SDR hardware using off-the-shelf components; and developed software including machine-learning algorithms for automatic event detection to trigger raw data recording during these events. Her lab deployed these receivers worldwide.

Dr. Morton’s group has made groundbreaking advances in GNSS carrier phase processing and established theoretical performance bounds. Her group developed optimal carrier tracking loop architectures and implementations, and successfully applied the techniques to processing signals experiencing strong ionospheric scintillation for ionosphere and space weather research; radio-occultation signals traversing moist lower troposphere for weather and climate modeling; weak coherent reflected signals from ocean, land, and sea ice for precision altimetry applications; and navigation in urban canyons and on high dynamic platforms. ion.org

Dr Kimia Shamaei receives Parkinson award

The Institute of Navigation’s (ION) Satellite Division presented Dr. Kimia Shamaei with its Bradford W. Parkinson Award September 25, 2020 during the ION GNSS+ 2020 VIRTUAL Conference.

Dr. Shamaei was recognized for her thesis, “Exploiting Cellular Signals for Navigation: 4G to 5G.” The Bradford W. Parkinson Award is awarded annually to an outstanding graduate student in the field of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). This award, which honors Dr. Parkinson for his leadership in establishing both the U.S. Global Positioning System and the Satellite Division of the ION, includes a personalized plaque and a $2,500 honorarium. ion.org

GNSS+INS technology for hydrographic survey applications

VERIPOS have introduced SPAN GNSS+INS technology from NovAtel, also part of Hexagon, into the offshore oil and gas marine market. NovAtel and its SPAN technology accelerated development in GNSS positioning, sensor fusion and inertial navigation systems for over 15 years. Now, VERIPOS brings this proven technology to the marine market to optimize positioning solution with GNSS and inertial measurement units (IMUs) to provide heading, attitude and heave measurements on the open water.

Through deep coupling, SPAN technology fuses measurements from the GNSS receiver and the IMU together to calculate robust and reliable position, heading, velocity attitude and heave. This process delivers a holistic and precise 3D solution, powering hydrographic survey applications through extended GNSS outages. veripos.com

Rehabilitation of Mara ecosystem using GNSS technology

The Mau Forest Complex in the Rift Valley in Kenya is the largest indigenous montane forest in East Africa. A huntergatherer community lives sustainably in the forest. However, encroachment and illegal allocation of the forest has left large parts cleared for settlement, agricultural use and logging.

To assist in efforts to remove illegal settlers and settlements and to rehabilitate the forest complex, Survey of Kenya (SOK) demarcated the Mau Forest boundaries to precisely delineate forest cut lines and solve the problem of fuzzy boundaries that have contributed to human encroachment.

To more safely perform the survey in disputed lands and difficult hostile terrain, SOK relied on the Spectra Geospatial SP80 GNSS receiver. The multi-constellation SP80 has the speed, accuracy, low-weight and ease-ofoperation that enabled the SOK survey team to work quickly and reduce survey time in disputed areas.www.trimble.com

Space-dedicated Gyro and IMU modules by Sensonor

The high-accuracy tactical-grade STIM277H Gyro module and STIM377H Inertial Measurement Unit are based on experiences and requirements from serving customers in the space segment during the last decade.

The modules have a hermetic aluminum enclosure with a glass-to-metal sealed electrical micro-d connector and a laser-welded lid to secure longterm hermetic operation. All parts are tested for fine and gross leak to conform to MIL-STD-883J, Class H. The hermetic enclosure protects the system from the external environment and ensures long-term reliability to meet requirements within the space segment and other applications needing exceptional longterm reliability. The design is tested for a 20+ years’ operating life through hightemperature operating life (HTOL) testing.

The parts are a good fit for satellite attitude & orbit control systems (AOCS), launchers, portable target acquisition systems, UAV payloads, land navigation systems, turret stabilization, missile stability and GNSS- supported navigation systems. sensonor.com

Russia to place 7th ground station of Glonass in Brazil

According to the report in TASS, the Precision Instrument-Making Systems research and production corporation (part of the State Space Corporation Roscosmos) has signed a contract to place a non-request measuring station of the SM-Glonass satellite navigation system in the municipality of Colorado do Oeste (the state of Rondonia in Brazil.

The Russian company signed the corresponding contract with the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rondonia and the Research Support and Development Fund.

The measuring station of the SM-Glonass system is designed to continuously monitor the signals of the Glonass, GPS, Galileo, Compass and QZSS navigation systems. The station is also required for controlling the reliability parameters of navigation signals of global navigation satellite systems. https://tass.com