GNSS

Galileo signal component tested for Internet of Things use

One of Europe’s Galileo satellites has been reconfigured to emit a new signal component optimised to serve low-end receiver devices and Internet of Things applications.

The metre-level accuracy provided by Galileo’s Open Service makes it the world’s most accurate generallyavailable service, out-performing other global navigation systems such as GPS and providing not only positioning, navigation and timing services to users worldwide, but also aiding rescue missions. Yet individual satellites within the constellation can also be used to trial new signals and services as the system continues to progress.

Embedded sensors placed in everything from home appliances to farm equipment to smart city infrastructure are on the way, allowing such items to report and exchange their location information so they can work together. At the same time, these stand-alone sensors are constrained by strict limits on available battery power and computational resources.

To serve this emerging market of IoT and snapshot devices, and to respond to the needs of chipset manufacturers, Galileo engineers looked into requiring a positioning signal that can be acquired with lower computational complexity. www.esa.int

ACSER upgrades satellite receiver for new applications

The University of New South Wales has produced an advanced satellite receiver that accepts GPS and Galileo signals. This locally developed technology could play an important role in Australia’s space future.

This receiver accepts signals from two satellite systems, GPS and Galileo, across multiple frequencies. The Australian Space Agency provided funding via the International Space Investment initiative. Professor Andrew Dempster, Director of the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER) at the University of New South Wales, led the development of the receiver.

The end product is an advanced receiver capable of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) reflectometry. This is a remote sensing technique where signals are reflected from the Earth’s surface to study environmental conditions over land and sea, such as floods and storms. www.industry.gov.au

NASA Moon Mission set to break record in navigation signal test

As the Artemis missions journey to the Moon and NASA plans for the long voyage to Mars, new navigation capabilities will be key to science, discovery, and human exploration.

Through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas, will deliver an experimental payload to the Moon’s Mare Crisium basin. NASA’s Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) payload will test a powerful new lunar navigation capability using Earth’s GNSS signals at the Moon for the first time.

LuGRE — developed in partnership with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) – will receive signals from both GPS and the European GNSS constellation, Galileo, and use them to calculate the first-ever GNSS location fixes in transit to the Moon and on the lunar surface. The LuGRE mission will use a specialized weak-signal receiver developed by Qascom, an Italian company specializing in space cybersecurity and satellite navigation security solutions, and funded by ASI. www.nasa.gov

Indian Railways ties up with ISRO for real-time train tracking

The Indian Railways is harnessing the power of data analytics for integrated transportation. It has commenced a project which will now enable real time tracking of train movements with the assistance of satellite imagery under the Real Time Train Information System (RTIS) project. D.K. Singh, Managing Director, Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), said that CRIS has collaborated with Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for live tracking to help Railways run trains efficiently.

ISRO has developed its own regional navigation satellite system called Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) and Bhuvan, a web-based utility which allows users to explore a set of mapbased content being deployed for tracking. “We have taken bandwidth from ISRO and integrated our systems with NavIC and Bhuvan. Every locomotive is fitted with a device and SIM, which communicates the train’s real position to the satellite and feedback is received. The movement is updated every three seconds. Until now, 4,000 locomotives have been installed with the technology, and new locomotives that are being manufactured come pre-installed with the tracking devices,” Mr. Singh said.

The CRIS has now developed a handheld device that can help reduce queues by providing tickets on platforms to unreserved passengers. Mr. Singh said that the CRIS has identified 90 use cases where AI can be used for improving Railways services, including seat allocation, prediction analysis on when freight trains will be emptied, and balancing stocks of medicines across the Railways health infrastructure www.thehindu.com

Orolia releases Skydel 22.12 GNSS simulation software

Orolia’s Skydel GNSS simulation software, can now generate more than 500 simulated satellite signals. This platform is suitable for GNSS users, experts and manufacturers, as well as users needing a low-Earth-orbit-capable simulation system. It contains a feature that includes multi-constellation and multi-frequency signal generation, remote control from user-defined scripts, and integrated interference generation. www.orolia.com