CANBERRA, Australia,
Feb. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Global
Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals are critical tools for
industries requiring exact precision and high confidence. Now,
Geoscience Australia, an agency of the Commonwealth of Australia, and Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) have
entered into a collaborative research project to show how
augmenting signals from multiple GNSS constellations can enhance
positioning, navigation, and timing for a range of
applications.
This innovative research project aims to demonstrate how a
second-generation Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS)
testbed can – for the first time – use signals from both the Global
Positioning System (GPS) and the Galileo constellation, and dual
frequencies, to achieve even greater GNSS integrity and accuracy.
Over two years, the testbed will validate applications in nine
industry sectors: agriculture, aviation, construction, maritime,
mining, rail, road, spatial, and utilities.
"Many industries rely on GNSS signals for accurate, safe
navigation. Users must be confident in the position solutions
calculated by GNSS receivers. The term 'integrity' defines the
confidence in the position solutions provided by GNSS," explained
Lockheed Martin Australia and New
Zealand Chief Executive Vince Di
Pietro. "Industries where safety-of-life navigation is
crucial want assured GNSS integrity."
Ultimately, the second-generation SBAS testbed will broaden
understanding of how this technology can benefit safety,
productivity, efficiency and innovation in Australia's industrial and research
sectors.
"We are excited to have an opportunity to work with Geoscience
Australia and Australian industry to demonstrate the best possible
GNSS performance and proud that Australia will be leading the way to enhance
space-based navigation and industry safety," Di Pietro added.
Basic GNSS signals are accurate enough for many civil
positioning, navigation and timing users. However, these signals
require augmentation to meet higher safety-of-life navigation
requirements. The second-generation SBAS will mitigate that
issue.
Once the SBAS testbed is operational, basic GNSS signals will be
monitored by widely-distributed reference stations operated by
Geoscience Australia. An SBAS testbed master station, installed by
teammate GMV, of Spain, will
collect that reference station data, compute corrections and
integrity bounds for each GNSS satellite signal, and generate
augmentation messages.
"A Lockheed Martin uplink antenna at Uralla, New South Wales will send these augmentation
messages to an SBAS payload hosted aboard a geostationary Earth
orbit satellite, owned by Inmarsat," explains Rod Drury, Director, International Strategy and
Business Development for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company.
"This satellite rebroadcasts the augmentation messages containing
corrections and integrity data to the end users. The whole process
takes less than six seconds."
By augmenting signals from multiple GNSS constellations – both
Galileo and GPS – second-generation SBAS is not dependent on just
one GNSS. It will also use signals on two frequencies – the L1 and
L5 GPS signals, and their companion E1 and E5a Galileo signals – to
provide integrity data and enhanced accuracy for industries that
need it the most.
Partners in this collaborative research project include the
government of Australia. Lockheed
Martin will provide systems integration expertise in addition to
the Uralla radio frequency uplink. GMV-Spain will provide their
'magicGNSS' processors. Inmarsat will provide the navigation
payload hosted on the 4F1 geostationary satellite. The Australia and New Zealand Cooperative Research
Centre for Spatial Information will coordinate the demonstrator
projects that test the SBAS infrastructure.
Lockheed Martin has significant experience with space-based
navigation systems. The company developed and produced 20 GPS IIR
and IIR-M satellites. It also maintains the GPS Architecture
Evolution Plan ground control system, which operates the entire
31-satellite constellation.
For additional GPS information, photos and video visit:
www.lockheedmartin.com/gps.
About Lockheed Martin
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a
global security and aerospace company that employs approximately
97,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research,
design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of
advanced technology systems, products and services.
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SOURCE Lockheed Martin