Govt Approves Modern Navigation Project GAGAN
In a bid to provide seamless navigation over the Indian airspace and waters, the Indian government has approved the implementation of a Rs 774-crore GPS aided futuristic project. The GPS aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) project would place India in a select group of nations, like the US, Europe and Japan, to possess such a system that would not only guide aircraft over its airspace, but also provide them straight-line fuel-efficient routes and precision approach landings.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the implementation of this project which is being developed jointly by the Indian Space Research Organisation and the Airports Authority of India. The GAGAN system would provide coverage of oceanic areas, which is not possible by the terrestrial systems that are in place now.

It would also improve airport and airspace access in all-weather conditions and provide precision-landing approaches to aircraft even at airports, where Instrument Landing Systems do not exist. Press Trust of India

India map in 3D satellite imagery
A new project to map all areas in the country using a three-dimensional satellite imagery would be launched soon, Union Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal said. http://www.hindu.com/

Trimble to acquire RolleiMetric. Introduces Multi-GNSS CORS Receiver
Trimble Navigation has agreed to acquire RolleiMetric from Rollei GmbH, Germany. RolleiMetric is a provider of metric camera systems for aerial imaging and terrestrial close range photogrammetry.
Trimble has introduced the Trimble® NetR8™ GNSS reference receiver. It can operate as a campaign receiver for post processing, as a Continuously Operating Reference Station receiver, portable base station for RTK applications or as a scientific reference station collecting information for specialized studies.
Specific applications include high-accuracy positioning as part of a Trimble VRS™ network, support for DGPS MSK beacons, and integrity monitoring of networks and physical infrastructure such as bridges, dams and mines. It has 76 channels and supports GPS L1, L2, L2C and L5 signals as well as GLONASS L1/L2 signals. There are also four channels dedicated to tracking SBAS.http://www.trimble.com

US businesses expected to spend 11 billion dollars on mobile apps by 2012
According to CompassIntelligence.com, businesses in the U.S. will spend roughly $11.6 billion on mobile applications by 2012. This year U.S. businesses are expected to spend an estimated $4.9 billion on mobile applications. This market is poised for double-digit17 growth over the next 5 years, driven by the growth in remote and telecommuting employees, the movement in “open Mobile Devices,” and the explosion of new and emerging free and fee-based mobile applications available for download. This research is part of Compass Intelligence’s Applications and Business Wireless
research. http://www.gpsdaily.com

Industry officials predict current procurement plan will delay
The heads of Europe’s two biggest satellite prime contractors urged the European Commission to accelerate its procurement of the Galileo satellite navigation system or face what might become politically unacceptable delays in getting the service started.
Attending an information conference of European Union space ministers here July 20-22, the chief executives of Astrium Satellites and Thales Alenia Space said the current Galileo procurement process, which began July 1 and is scheduled to continue through
May 2009, is unnecessarily slow “The procurement has been substantially delayed and this schedule introduces more delays,” said Evert Dudok, chief executive of Astrium Satellites. “We need
procurement decisions in 2008 to keep to the service introduction date.” Dudok made his remarks here July 21 during a tour of Europe’s Guiana Space Center spaceport as part of a delegation that included French Research Minister Valerie Pecresse and European Commission Vice President Guenter Verheugen.
Dudok was addressing Pecresse because France assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union July 1. Dudok said France, which has identified space policy as one of the key priorities of its six-month presidency, could use its influence to accelerate the Galileo procurement. Dudok urged Pecresse and Verheugen to use
their influence to get the European Commission permission to remove what he said were needlessly complicated rules on the Galileo procurement.
In an interview, Dudok said it is his understanding the commission has the leeway to bypass some of its procedures to speed up the procurement as long as the major concerns — fair bidding and
inclusion of subcontractors that are not part of the prime contractor’s corporate family — and other concerns are respected.
Thales Alenia Space Chief Executive Reynald Seznec agreed. In an interview, Seznec said Astrium Satellites, Thales Alenia Space and its major subcontractors have assembled a contract proposal that
distributes work throughout Europe and limits the prime contractors’ dominance in a way that complies with European Commission concerns. “We really believe we have come up with a contracting profile that responds to the commission’s concerns and that we could negotiate a final contract much sooner” than mid-2009, Seznec said.
The European Commission, which has assumed overall authority for
Galileo and has delegated the European Space Agency (ESA) as contract oversight authority, issued detailed procurement rules July 1 for the six Galileo work packages. www.wibw.com/
weather/headlines/26238124.html

ISRO to forecast crop behavior
The Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics has tied up with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the project to forecast crop condition and drought-like situations with the

help of satellite images. Satellite images of the ground where the crops are harvested will be matched, analysed and calculated with the data provided by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and a conclusion will be arrived at. Initially, the project will be carried out in Karnataka on a pilot basis. Later, it will be implemented in other major agricultural states like Maharashtra.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

GLONASS-K Birds go into production
Information Satellite Systems – Reshetnev Co. has begun the production of the K-series of GLONASS satellites for Russia. The first launch of a GLONASSK satellite is scheduled for launch in 2010, according to Russia’s Federal Space Agency. GLONASSK is the third generation of Russia’s GLONASS positioning satellites. In contrast to GLONASS and GLONASS- M satellites, which have relatively short service lives of only a few years, GLONASS-K has a planned service life of 12 years, a depressurized platform, and a decreased weight, according to Reshetnev.

EMRI joins hands with GEOMED for enhancing emergency response service
Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) and GEOMED Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH signed an MoU to work together on shared goals regarding the improvement of GIS based emergency health systems data utilization and related research and emergency response services internationally.
GEOMED’s focus is on the development and application of geography-based methods and technologies in public health and health care. Research and development projects deal with planning
and allocation of resources in emergency or secondary care, innovative health monitoring and surveillance applications or decision support in the context of urban health. Continuous cooperations exist
with research institutions, health services and authorities across Europe, Northern America as well as in India and China.
PHR to map health medical centres with GIS in Yemen

Yemen Partners for Health Reforms (PHR) project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is training a group of decision makers in the Health Ministry Bureau,
launched a course to target provinces that are instructed in the use the GIS in order to map the health medical centers in all Yemen’s provinces. www.yobserver.com
AU Professors to evaluate GIS project

To ensure quality and take guidance in the implementation of the GIS project, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) is contemplating hiring the services of faculty of the civil engineering department of Andhra University. The VMC had asked the civil engineering department to evaluate the job of Hyderabad-based Speck Systems, which was entrusted the task of satellite imaging
of the city. The VMC would enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the civil engineering department of the university shortly. the latter would play the role of a ‘third party’ in implementing the project. www.thehindu.com

US PND market doubles in Q2
Shipments of portable navigation devices (PNDs) in the United States almost doubled in the second quarter (Q2) of this year at 3.7 million units, compared to the 2.8 million units in Q2 2007, but
prices are still dropping, according to market research firm Canalys. At this time last year, unit volume shipments were depressed following an inventory buildup resulting from extremely high sales into the channel in the final quarter. While shipments have grown,
Canalys estimates that average selling prices have dropped approximately 40 percent drop year over year.
Canalys estimates that Garmin remained the US market leader with 47% share, up 4% on its Q1 position, but down slightly on the 50% it had a year ago. TomTom, in second, saw year-on-year growth substantially above the market average, almost trebling its shipments, and giving it a share of 25%. Despite this high growth, this was down on the 28% it had in Q1, meaning that Garmin increased its lead by several percentage points sequentially. Magellan retained its third place with a reduced 11% share. These three vendors have consistently taken more than 80% of the market for several quarters. Outside of the top three, several vendors posted high year-onyear
growth, notably Mio Technology, Navigon and Nextar, albeit on much lower volumes. www.canalys.com

Honeywell selects Spirent GPS simulator for NASA’s Orion project
Honeywell has selected a Spirent GPS/ Inertial simulator to develop, integrate, and verify the navigation system for NASA’s Orion project. The simulator includes comprehensive modeling of the space environment and will provide multiple radio frequency outputs. It will include multiple SimINERTIAL units Spirent Inertial interfaces that provide Honeywell engineers the capability of emulating Inertial sensor output while simultaneously simulating GPS RF signals.