GPS World, January 2017

SYSTEM SYSTEMS OF Ground Control Upgrade for GPS III Approved T he U S Air Force approved Lockheed Martins design to upgrade the current GPS satellite ground control system with new capabilities that will enable it to operate more powerful and accurate GPS III satellites The successful Critical Design Review CDR for the Contingency O p e r a t i o n s COps c o n t r a c t completed on Nov 17 gives Lockheed Martin a green light to proceed with software development and systems engineering to modify the existing GPS ground control system called the Architecture Evolution Plan AEP Operational Control Segment The AEP is currently maintained by Lockheed Martin and controls the will improve as more satellites are launched The Open Service is a free massmarket service for users with enabled chipsets in for instance smartphones and car navigation systems Fully interoperable with GPS combined coverage will deliver more accurate and reliable positioning for users Public Regulated Service is an encrypted robust service for government authorized users such as civil protection fire brigades and the police Search and Rescue Service is Europes contribution to the long running Cospas Sarsat international emergency beacon location The time between someone locating a distress beacon when lost at sea or in the wilderness Geo localisation is at the heart of the ongoing digital revolution with new services that transform our daily lives Galileo will increase geo location precision tenfold and enable the next generation of location based technologies such as autonomous cars connected devices or smart city services EC VP Maroš Šefčovič will be reduced from up to three hours to just 10 minutes with its location determined to within 5 kilometers rather than the previous 10 kilometers Advisory Updates USABINIT NAGUs were issued for 11 satellites 0101 0102 0103 0203 0204 0205 0206 0208 0209 0210 and 0211 USABINIT or Initially Usable 12 GPS WORLD WWW GPSWORLD COM JANUARY 2017 notifies users that a satellite is set healthy for the first time 0104 had a power problem and is operating on E1 only 0201 and 0202 were launched into lower orbits 0207 and 0212 0214 are still undergoing commissioning and drifting to their designated orbital slots GALILEO Continued from page 11 31 GPS IIR IIR M and IIF satellites in orbit today The COps modifications will allow the AEP to support the more powerful next generation GPS Block III satellites enabling them to perform their positioning navigation and timing mission once they are launched COps is envisioned as a temporary gap filler prior to the entire GPS constellations transition to operations onto the next generation Operational Control System OCX Block 1 currently in development On Oct 15 under a separate contract Lockheed Martin completed the Commercial Off the Shelf COTS Upgrade 2 CUP2 project part of a multi year plan to refresh the AEPs technology and enhance the systems ability to protect data and infrastructure from internal and external cyber threats as well as improve its overall sustainability and operability CUP2 is now fully operational and managing the current GPS constellation Lockheed Martin also is under contract to develop and build the Air Forces first 10 GPS III satellites which will deliver three times better accuracy provide up to eight times improved anti jamming capabilities and extend spacecraft life to 15 years 25 percent longer than the newest GPS satellites on orbit today GPS IIIs new L1C civil signal will make it the first GPS satellite to be interoperable with other international global navigation satellite systems