January/February 2008

» Full table of contents (print edition)

» Subscribe to the print edition for free.
    Allow 6 to 8 weeks for your subscription to be processed.

The U.S. Global Positioning System - GPS - was filled with unknowns on that winter afternoon 30 years ago as its first satellite, officially Space Vehicle Number 1 (SVN01), awaited the final countdown.

Advances in geospatial technologies don’t necessarily mean a corresponding retreat of innovation in the field. Quite the opposite, in fact, as this subdivision mapping project — fusing GNSS, helicopter overflights, a low-cost digital camera, and photo-modeling software — demonstrates in a remote Alaskan village.

In December,  details of the Compass program and plans were discussed for the first time at the only GNSS conference authorized by China’s government, the Shanghai Navigation Forum. Editor Glen Gibbons brings back a report on the current state of satellite navigation in China.

Tour China with a GPS receiver and no street-level map? No problem!

Now in its third year of operation, the first experimental Galileo satellite— GIOVE-A — is reaching the end of its mission life. What has been learned from on-orbit testing and how will that affect the design of GIOVE-A2, the second satellite commissioned by the European Space Agency (ESA) from it UK spacecraft manufacturer, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL)? A team of authors from SSTL and ESA describe the latest test results and the status of preparations for A2, which among other things is expected to broadcast the first composite BOC or CBOC (6,1,1/11) signal planned for Galileo.

Part I: Ultratight GNSS/INS integration with Paul Groves and Neil Boasman, QinetiQ, United Kingdom. Part II: Determination of platform orientation using GNSS and/or MEMS inertial sensors with Yong Li, Satellite Navigation and Positioning (SNAP) Lab, School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems, the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Imagine yourself in the middle of a battlefield with only one truly compelling objective: to maneuver yourself from one point to another and execute your mission — with the reward of your own survival. One eye on the threat, one eye on the horizon! Tension, perhaps a deep fear, seizes you as you confront mortal danger. This is your last shot! Wouldn’t you rather make it while seated behind a desk at a mission control station far from the raging conflict, directing an aerial vehicle without a human on board? A powered, aerial vehicle that can do more for than you could personally on the battlefield yourself?

Perhaps we could turn an earlier generation’s aphorism on its head: don’t trust any GNSS under 30.

His disinclination to punch a time clock led to a career creating high-precision GNSS software and hardware. For NavCom Technology's engineering master, it's all relative - or maybe not....