GPS IIF-8 Ready for Launch

As reported by Schriever Air Force Base: The U.S. Air Force is scheduled to launch the eighth Boeing-built Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch vehicle, Oct. 29. The launch window opens at 1:21 p.m. EDT and will remain open for 18 minutes.

This mission marks a major achievement for the GPS IIF program; this will be the fourth GPS IIF space vehicle launched this year. The first seven of the twelve GPS IIF satellites are currently on-orbit and meeting all mission requirements. The Boeing built GPS IIF satellites add a new third civil signal (L5) for commercial aviation and safety-of-life applications, improved navigational accuracy through advanced atomic clocks and a longer design life than its predecessor models.

"The GPS IIF-8 satellite vehicle is ready for launch, and the improved capabilities of the GPS IIF satellite continues the legacy of delivering global positioning, navigation and timing services" said Col. Bill Cooley, director of Space and Missile Systems Center's Global Positioning Systems Directorate. "We have a legacy to be very proud of and we will continue to live up to our commitments by sustaining and enhancing GPS mission capabilities to ensure we continue to deliver a healthy, stable and robust GPS constellation for users around the world," he said. 

GPS continues to perform as the world's premier space-based positioning and navigation system providing Positioning, Navigation, and Timing services for users with continued uninterrupted service. Operated by U.S. Air Force Space Command, the GPS constellation continues to provide worldwide PNT services seven days a week, 24-hours a day.

Air Force Space Command's Space and Missile Systems Center, located at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., is the U.S. Air Force's center of acquisition excellence for acquiring and developing military space systems. Its portfolio includes the Global Positioning System, military satellite communications, defense meteorological satellites, space launch and range systems, satellite control networks, space-based infrared systems and space situational awareness capabilities.

How Telematics Has Completely Revolutionized the Management of Fleet Vehicles

As reported by Entrepreneur: Telematics has revolutionized the management of fleet vehicles, reducing wear and tear and the amount of time it takes to roll up to a customer's door. A glance at UPS shows how they do it better than anyone, and how you can streamline the operation of your own company vehicles.

If you want to understand the importance of telematics tracking software, consider that it helped UPS--the world's largest private shipper and one of the largest fleet operators, with more than 100,000 vehicles logging 3 billion miles per year--cut its preventative maintenance schedule in half over the last five years.

That's right: UPS went from 240,000 preventative maintenance inspections per year to 120,000. What's especially impressive is that the company did this while increasing the reliability of its vehicles.

Director of automotive engineering Dale Spencer, who oversees the UPS fleet, explains that the company is atypical in that it owns the majority of its vehicles (as opposed to leasing them). It has more than 1,400 garages worldwide dedicated to maintaining every delivery truck or car.

For decades, UPS used the same maintenance schedule: changing the oil, fluids and brakes at prescribed intervals, no matter what. That changed with the introduction of sophisticated, proprietary tracking software, as well as advances in engine technology.

"In the past three to five years we've seen 50 percent better fuel efficiencies come to medium-duty trucks," Spencer says.

UPS has learned to trust the data--to monitor every truck remotely, from a high-temperature warning to signals as to whether a driver is wearing a seat belt. "We have the driver data; we know how fast they're driving, how hard they're stopping," Spencer says. "That driver will change bad habits before it costs us money."

The software also allows the company to spot wear trends. "We could see certain parts wearing out on the same vehicles too quickly," Spencer says. That enabled UPS to go back to the vehicle manufacturer and argue for a warranty claim because it was possible to document a pattern. Even a small-business owner with a 10-vehicle fleet might have such an advantage, he says, "as long as they had the data to prove it."

That said, you don't need a system as elaborate as UPS' to reap the rewards of tracking your fleet. Spencer claims that even off-the-shelf telematics software "will give you discipline on maintenance." Used right, you'll know about a problem in any vehicle before it's a crisis. And like UPS, you'll be able to keep your fleet on the road longer and get more miles out of it because repairs are done before a vehicle becomes seriously damaged.

GPS III Satellites Delayed after Integration Hiccups

The GPS III Non-Flight Satellite Testbed.

As reported by the Democrat & Chronicle: When was the last time you got lost behind the wheel?

The Global Positioning System satellite system that first went operational in the mid-1990s has revolutionized everything from business supply chain management to family summer vacation road trips with the ability to take signals beamed from those satellites and instantly compute exactly where you are on Earth.

But plans for the latest generation of GPS satellites, GPS III, are running substantially behind schedule due to technical problems faced by defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin and a subcontractor, Exelis Inc.’s Rochester-based Geospatial Systems Division.

Exelis earlier this fall shipped the first Navigation Payload Element to the U.S. Air Force for testing and then delivery to Lockheed Martin for integration into the rocket. That is three years later than originally expected.

The original timetable of the GPS III program had the first of those eight Lockheed Martin-built satellites going into orbit by Halloween. Now that first GPS III launch is expected to be sometime in 2016. “The Air Force sets the actual launch dates,” said Chip Eschenfelder, spokesman for Lockheed Martin’s Colorado-based Space Systems business.

Exelis declined to comment for this report, referring questions to the Air Force.

Eschenfelder said Lockheed Martin and Exelis in 2013 discovered development issues with that first Navigation Payload Element “which required further work.”

“The delays have been driven by first-time development and integration issues, including design changes to eliminate ... signal interference within the satellite,” he said. “It is important to understand the GPS III navigation payload is not just an upgrade to legacy GPS navigation payloads. It is an entirely new product.”

The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center in a statement said, “The solution to this problem has been identified” and the satellite’s Mission Data Unit — essentially the satellite’s computer — “is expected to be fully qualified next summer.”

One of the GPS system’s primary functions is for military applications, missile guidance and reconnaissance. The major upgrade to GPS III is a high-power jam-resistant military code, as well as better security, said Capt. Caitlin Suttie, Air Force Space Command spokeswoman. “It’s the next step in GPS technology, just like the iPhone 6,” she said.

GPS III “will deliver three times better accuracy, provide up to eight times improved anti-jamming capabilities for our military users, and include enhancements which extend spacecraft life to 15 years — 25 percent longer than the GPS IIF satellites being launched today,” said Eschenfelder.

While Lockheed Martin is contracted for eight satellites, that will be only the start of the GPS III constellation. “We try to have upwards of 20 for redundancy,” Suttie said.

Exelis’ GPS business — based in New Jersey but part of Geospatial Systems — is Lockheed Martin’s subcontractor handling the navigation payload element, which actually generates the GPS signals for civilian and military users.

“Without the navigation payload, there would be no GPS,” Eschenfelder said.
Exelis’ role in future GPS III satellites is somewhat up in the air. Lockheed Martin late last year put out a request for information looking for alternate payload providers.

The Air Force and Lockheed Martin are reworking the contract “to play out an efficient and affordable delivery schedule” for the eight GPS III satellites that accounts for the delays in the first, the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center said in a statement in response to questions.

And while Lockheed Martin is contracted to build those eight, “the Air Force is conducting market research to explore the industry base to determine if there is a viable GPS III Production Readiness alternate source, including an alternative navigation payload,” according to Space and Missile Systems Center.

Lockheed Martin’s Eschenfelder said the company “had discussions with several companies” about building navigation payloads, though he declined to give further details.

“Issuing (a request for information) is a normal business practice,” he said. “We regularly do this for all our programs to better understand what technology industry has to offer. In the end, this allows us to offer the best available capabilities to our customers.”

Once that the navigational payload has been delivered to Lockheed Martin, Eschenfelder said, “Exelis will be into the production phase, where the company has historically performed very well.”

Audi Robotic Racecar Relies on GPS

As reported by IEEE Spectrum: This weekend Audi will show off its self-driving technology under what would seem to be the most challenging conditions imaginable: a race track.

Yet despite the high speeds involved, the feat is simpler in some ways than navigating city streets, where you have to recognize and avoid pedestrians and squirrels.  A race car merely has to keep its position on the track, moving in and out of it only when passing or dodging another car.

And because the track is a known quantity, the car can keep it all in its little electronic head and rely heavily on GPS—provided it’s corrected to an accuracy of just a few centimeters. Which, in this case, it will be.

The public demonstration will take place on Sunday at the Hockenheim race track, in southwestern Germany. The car, an RS 7, will do a lap or two at race pace, around 250 kilometers per hour (149 miles per hour). It will duel with an identical, but human-piloted car. My money’s on the robot.

“We’re going into the curves, the cornering, just like a professional race driver,” Peter Bergmiller, a technician for Audi, says in the company’s video promotion.  “So for example, we have lateral accelerations of more than 1 g.”
Watch the promo:

The Robotic Racecar is related to it's predecessor the TTS which climbed Pikes Peak in Colorado in 2010 without a driver though at much slower speeds:

The Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb is one of the oldest, most impressive, and difficult races in the US.

India Launches Third Navigation Satellite, IRNSS-1C

As reported by GPS World: India has successfully launched IRNSS-1C, the third satellite in the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), early on October 16. The satellite was launched aboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C26 at 2002 GMT (4:02 p.m. EDT) from Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota.

After the lift-off of PSLV-C26 with the ignition of the first stage, the important flight events — namely, stage and strap-on ignitions, heat-shield separation, stage and strap-on separations and satellite injection — took place as planned, according to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). After a flight of about 20 minutes, 18 seconds, the IRNSS-1C satellite, weighing 1425 kg, was injected to an elliptical orbit of 282.56 km x 20,670 km, which is very close to the intended orbit.

 
After injection, the solar panels of IRNSS-1C were deployed automatically. ISRO’s Master Control Facility (at Hassan, Karnataka) assumed the control of the satellite. In the coming days, four orbit maneuvers will be conducted from the Master Control Facility to position the satellite in the geostationary orbit at 83 degrees East longitude. 

IRNSS-1C is the third of the seven satellites constituting the space segment of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. IRNSS-1A and IRNSS-1B, the first two satellites of the constellation, were successfully launched by PSLV on July 02, 2013, and April 04, 2014, respectively. Both IRNSS-1A and 1B are functioning satisfactorily from their designated geosynchronous orbital positions. 

IRNSS is an independent regional navigation satellite system designed to provide position information in the Indian region and 1,500 kilometers around the Indian mainland. IRNSS will provide two types of services, namely, Standard Positioning Services (SPS) — provided to all users — and Restricted Services (RS), provided to authorized users.

A number of ground stations responsible for the generation and transmission of navigation parameters, satellite control, satellite ranging and monitoring, etc., have been established in as many as 15 locations across the country.

This is the 27th consecutively successful mission of the PSLV, which used the XL configuration of PSLV for the seventh time. Honorable Minister of State (Space) Jitendra Singh, witnessed the launch from the Mission Control Centre at SDSC, Sriharikota.

The next satellite of this constellation, IRNSS-1D, is scheduled to be launched by PSLV in the coming months. The entire IRNSS constellation of seven satellites is planned to be completed by 2015.

Below is a slideshow with images from the launch preparations and launch.

Nozzle end segment of PSLV-C26 being hoisted for assembly.

Nozzle end segment of PSLV-C26 being hoisted for assembly with launch pedestal.

IRNSS-1C being assembled with PSLV-C26 in the mobile service tower.

PSLV-C26 inside the mobile service tower prior to satellite integration.

IRNSS-1C being assembled with PSLV-C26.

The PSLV-C26, carrying IRNSS-1C, lifts off.

Assembly of PSLV-C26, third and fourth Stages.

The third IRNSS satellite heads into orbit.

After Two Years in Orbit, the Air Force's X-37B Robotic Space Plane is Back

As reported by The Daily Mail: A top-secret space plane has landed safely on the Southern California coast.

Officials at Vandenberg Air Force Base said the plane, which spent nearly two years orbiting Earth on a classified mission, touched down at 9:24 a.m. Friday.

The X-37B space drone, otherwise known as the Orbital Test Vehicle, has been in flight since December 2012 on a secret mission.

The plane, known as the X-37B, resembles a mini space shuttle.

Just what the plane was doing has been the subject of sometimes spectacular speculation.

Several experts have theorized it carried a payload of spy gear in its cargo bay.

Other theories sound straight out of a James Bond film, including that the spacecraft would be able to capture the satellites of other nations or shadow China's space lab. 

The X-37B program has bounced between several federal agencies, NASA among them, since 1999.

The plane has been in space for a total of 674 days, far more than its two previous flights which lasted 225 and 469 days.

The program's first mission launched in April 2010 and landed in December that year. 

The second space plane took off on March 2011 and came back to Earth in June 2012.

According to X-37B manufacturer Boeing, the space plane operates in low-earth orbit, between 110 and 500 miles above earth. 

By comparison, the International Space Station orbits at about 220 miles. 

Both top secret missions ended at Vandenberg base, but this may soon change as Boeing, which built the shuttles, is working to renovate a Nasa hangar at the Kennedy Space Center, which could become X-37B's new home.

Nasa last week said it has entered into an agreement with the Air Force's X-37B program for use of the Kennedy Space Center's Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) Bays 1 and 2 -- former space shuttle hangars.

Boeing is performing construction upgrades in those facilities that are targeted to be complete in December.

All missions so far have launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

While the airplane looks like NASA's retired space shuttles, it has its own identity.

An infrared view of the X-37B unmanned spacecraft landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The purpose of the U.S. military's space plane is classified, only fueling speculation about why it has been orbiting Earth for nearly two years on this, its third mission.

Like a shuttle, it is blasted into orbit by a rocket. 

However, it lands using a runway like a normal aircraft.

The X-37B is too small to carry people on-board, but does have a cargo bay similar to that of a pickup truck, which is just large enough to carry a small satellite. 

'I'm extremely proud of our team for coming together to execute this third safe and successful landing,' Col. Keith Balts, commander of the 30th Space Wing that is headquartered at Vandenberg, said in a statement. 

'Everyone from our on-console space operators to our airfield managers and civil engineers take pride in this unique mission and exemplify excellence during its execution.'

This Dec. 3, 2010, file image provided by the Vandenberg Air Force Base shows technicians examining the X-37B unmanned spaceplane shortly after landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

Tesla S Teardown Reveals It's More Like a Smartphone than a Car

As reported by ComputerWorld: 

High-end electronics

IHS Technology is dismantling a Tesla S sedan, and started with the cabin and its electronics. IHS found an infotainment and instrumentation system custom-designed and built with state-of-the-art technology, as well as a supply chain methodology that more closely resembles Apple's build model for an iPhone or iPad than that of a traditional automobile maker.

"That’s a big difference between Tesla and, for the most part, the rest of the automotive manufacturer space. Most [car makers] turn everything over -- lock, stock and barrel -- to third parties," said Andrew Rassweiler, senior director of cost benchmarking services at IHS.

In the traditional model, a car maker would set certain parameters for its infotainment system, but then send it off to Panasonic, Alpine or Harmon to be designed and built using a long supply chain. Tesla, in contrast, designs the infotainment system and then sends it off to be built like Foxconn would build an iPhone for Apple, Rassweiler said.

Two NVIDIA Tegra processor modules are at the heart of the electronic components in the Model S, which "command a sizable price tag," according to Rassweiler. Here is a look at how they work.

Premium Media Control Unit - front view

Tesla's 17-in. center display is 10-in. larger than the average infotainment system (also called a head unit) screen.

IHS called the entertainment head unit "the most complex...design ever seen by the IHS Teardown Analysis Service."

The head unit has more than 5,000 discrete components, around 1,000 more than the highest-end infotainment unit IHS previously analyzed. Likewise, a bill of materials for the virtual instrument cluster and the premium media control unit is roughly twice the cost of the highest-end infotainment unit examined by IHS.

The touch screen is made by TPK Holdings, which also was the first touch-screen supplier to Apple for the initial models of the iPhone, according to IHS. 

Premium Media Control Unit - rear view

The unit is built by Innolux Corp. in Taiwan. The separate audio amplifier module for the sound system is built by S1nn GmbH in Germany.

The DRAM and NAND flash used with the NVIDIA Visual Computing Modules come from SK Hynix.

The head unit also contains a field-programmable gate array from Altera Corp.

 Premium Media Control Unit - interior view

An interior view of the Tesla 2013 Model S Premium Media Control Unit.
The use of an NVIDIA Corp. Tegra 3, 1.4Ghz quad-core processor provides computing power in the same league with recent smartphone and tablet designs.

Other microcontrollers used in the unit come from Freescale Semiconductor and Texas Instruments (including the assorted analog, logic and specialized IC content in multiple modules).

The wireless chipset module is built by Sierra Wireless and Qualcomm. Parrot built the Model S's combination BT and WLAN Wi-Fi hotspot module.

Bring on the infotainment

Tesla's Model S infotainment system has been highly rated by consumers. At the Detroit Telematics Show this past June, for example, automotive market research firm SBD presented survey results from 46 consumers who had purchased any new car over the past year. The owners overwhelmingly chose two primary functions that they wanted in a car's infotainment system -- navigation and music. Google search and Pandora also ranked high among the drivers.

The new car owners chose Tesla's infotainment system over similar systems in the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the Porsche PCM, the Dodge Ram 1500, the Nissan Altima and the Honda Civic.

Those surveyed said they liked the Tesla S's infotainment system's large screen size, and the big, easy-to-find icons and intuitive interface that made it simple to use.

Instrument Cluster - front view

Here we see a front view of Tesla's virtual instrument cluster, which contains functions such as the digital speedometer, tachometer and vehicle alert system.

Prior to the Tesla teardown, IHS dismantled Cadillac's virtual instrument cluster, which was similar in size, resolution and functionality.

Tesla’s version is a 12.3-in. diagonal, 1280 x 480-resolution LCD from Japan Display Inc., which is also a supplier for Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

As with the infotainment system, the virtual instrument display is among the single largest costs from an electronics perspective, according to IHS.

Instrument Cluster - rear view

It's powered by an NVIDIA Visual Computing Module, which has "an unexpected and impressive show of computing power that features a Tegra 2 processor," IHS said.

"Considering there is also an NVIDIA Tegra 3 in the Premium Media Control Unit, this is a notable array of computing horsepower in a single automobile," IHS stated.


Teardown highlights

In this video, IHS's senior director of Teardown Services, Andrew Rassweiler, talks about the highlights of his team’s dismantling of the Tesla Model S.