Free Portable GPS

New technology on it’s way?

Boeing has successfully assembled and integrated all flight hardware onto the first Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF satellite. GPS llF will bring new capabilities to the GPS constellation such as full onboard encrypted military code, a new civil signal, crosslink enhancements, signal power increases and longer design life.

“GPS IIF is on track because of the team’s stellar application of back-to-basics program management,” said Howard Chambers, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems. “The performance of these subsystems is a testament to our process-based management and to our lean manufacturing commitment, and GPS IIF fully meets the specifications set forth by our U.S. Air Force customer and places us firmly on track to deliver the satellite for the first launch in 2008.”

Boeing is building 12 GPS Block IIF satellites under contract from the Navstar GPS Wing at the Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles.  The satellite’s sophisticated L-band payload will include new hardware that serves the civil user community. Designed to enhance non-safety-critical applications, the signals will improve aviation and other precision safety signals.

Technicians are preparing GPS IIF for key dynamic environmental tests designed to confirm its structural design and mechanical integrity. They also are attaching the solar panels and configuring the satellite before it undergoes several physical tests. The tests will help ensure robust mission assurance with an emphasis on product integrity and mission success.

Each GPS IIF satellite will complete acoustic stress tests using high-powered speakers to verify that the spacecraft can tolerate the high sound pressure levels during launches; mechanical tests similar to a separation test to make sure it disconnects cleanly and correctly from the launch vehicle; tests of its deployable mechanisms such as the solar wings and the antenna to ensure that they release correctly on-orbit; and finally, GPS IIF will undergo thermal vacuum testing to confirm its ability to operate in a vacuum and under the extreme temperatures of space.

Working closely with the U.S. Air Force to deliver new, advanced GPS capabilities to the military, civil government and the general public, Boeing will continue the GPS Wing’s track record of on-orbit performance and constellation sustainment to guarantee GPS availability to users worldwide.  This project is very important and success if vital.

India plans to build a constellation of seven geo-stationary satellites at a cost of Rs 1,600 crore to meet the navigational system requirements in cars, trains and aircraft. “Design (of the satellites) is more or less complete. We are in the process of building the first proto model,” Secretary in the Department of Space G Madhavan Nair said.

“First launch will take place around 2010. We should be able to complete all the satellites by 2012,” Nair, also the Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, told reporters on the sidelines of an international space meet here.

These seven geo-stationary satellites will cater to the navigational system requirements in cars, trains and aircraft, he said. “It can provide accurate timing signals all over the place,” and also find applications in surveying as well locating things in times of disaster.

“If you want to have a global coverage, we have to have a constellation of nearly 24 satellite which has to be going around all over the world….20,000 km above the earth; whereas we have evolved a unique concept by which if you put in geostationary orbit, it will be continuously visible from our region. We need only a minimum number of satellites. Seven satellites will do this job,” he said.

The Bangalore-headquartered ISRO is in the process of establishing the Indian Regional Navigation System based on these seven proposed satellites over India.  “For the constellation, we are going to spend around Rs 1,600 crore,” Nair said.  The string of navigation satellites are expected to be launched by home-built Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).  “We want to build the satellite as small as possible,” Nair added.

He also said the ISRO-promoted Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, based in Thiruvananthapuram, would start functioning from September 14 with a first batch of 150 students.  It is good to see a progressive country like India taking these steps.

Raytheon’s Cobra Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) conducted the first official unmanned aircraft flight in North Dakota June 25. The Cobra flew approved flight profiles through military restricted airspace over Camp Grafton South, a National Guard training facility 45 miles south of Devil’s Lake, N.D. In addition to being the first unmanned aircraft to fly in North Dakota airspace, these were also the Cobras’ first flights away from their home station in Tucson, Ariz.

During the three-day deployment to the site, the Cobras completed nine flights and executed completely autonomous takeoffs, landings and in-flight navigation along pre-planned routes.

The flights were part of Raytheon’s collaboration with the University of North Dakota, John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, the University of North Dakota School of Engineering and Mines and the North Dakota National Guard.

In one of the planned missions from the Camp Grafton South airfield, a Cobra UAS carried the PrecisionAg digital imaging payload developed by the University of North Dakota Unmanned Aircraft Engineering team. The PrecisionAg payload is designed to take digital images of crops and rangeland for monitoring vegetation health for North Dakota agribusiness applications.

“With its ability to conduct completely autonomous flight profiles and its FAA experimental airworthiness certification, Cobra is positioned to be the preferred unmanned aircraft system for the science, research and engineering communities,” said Don Newman, Raytheon director of Unmanned Systems. “Cobra can stay aloft for more than three hours with a 25-pound payload, providing researchers with an affordable, stable platform for an array of sophisticated electronic equipment and sensors.”

Cobra is a low-cost, highly reliable unmanned aircraft designed to support Raytheon’s development, integration and test of unmanned systems technologies. The aircraft has a wingspan of 10 feet and is 9-feet long.  The Cobra UAS was designed by Raytheon to support the development, test and demonstration of sensor systems; networked command, control and communications systems; and unmanned aircraft system architectural concepts.

The Cobra UAS integrates advanced systems and capabilities from several Raytheon businesses, including Tucson-based Missile Systems; Intelligence and Information Systems, based in Garland, Texas; Space and Airborne Systems in El Segundo, Calif.; and McKinney, Texas-based Network Centric Systems.  This is an exciting piece of technology that is for sure.

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