SMC Public Affairs / Published June 26, 2020 CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. — The Space and Missile Systems Center’s Lockheed Martin-built GPS III SV03 satellite was encapsulated within a SpaceX payload fairing at Astrotech on June 21 in preparation for its upcoming launch on June 30 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Encapsulation of the satellite within the payload fairing protects the satellite against the impact of dynamic pressure and […]

A new Esri mobile app, ArcGIS Field Maps, will be released in its first beta in July, with the final version expected to be released in September. According to Esri, Field Maps will combine the following capabilities into a single app: Simple map viewing and markup High-accuracy field data collection and inspection Battery-optimized location tracking Work planning and task management Turn-by-turn navigation Field Maps also will include a new web app, integrated with ArcGIS, that […]

June 24, 2020 Photo credit: Getty Sports In the sport of cycling, suffering paves the path to victory. But everyone’s tolerance for pain is different. While physical fitness represents the ceiling of your physical limits, just how close you get to that limit is dictated by your mental fitness. The good news is that just like physical fitness, your mental fitness can also be trained. For those who aren’t blessed with freak genetics but still […]

China’s domestically developed Beidou Navigation Satellite System has been widely used in many public sectors and business fields at home and abroad, according to the China Satellite Navigation Office. By the end of 2019, more than 100 million Beidou-based navigation chips, modules and other products had been sold. The system had by then been applied to nearly 6.6 million taxis, buses and trucks around China as well as more than […]

Altitude Angel and Inmarsat are collaborating to develop and deliver advanced flight tracking and management capability for UAVs. According to the companies, they will build on Altitude Angel’s GuardianUTM platform to jointly develop a “pop-up UTM” capability that can be deployed anywhere it is required to manage beyond visual line of sight UAV flights, without the need for ground-based communications infrastructure. By utilizing Inmarsat’s global network of satellites and leveraging its experience in air traffic […]

June 26, 2020 Sean Silvera was hunched in his upside-down truck at the bottom of the valley after it had gone down a steep hillside — tumbling side over side, front over back, when he began to smell the fumes of leaking gas from the small tank tucked in the cab. A lot had happened in a matter of moments, but all he knew was that he had to get out. Silvera — a contractor, […]

History of GPS GPS has its origins in the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite. While the launch was a Cold War setback for the U.S., it ultimately led to U.S. researchers discovering that Sputnik’s orbit could be accurately tracked from its radio transmissions using ground-receiving stations, a discovery that fostered government and private research and development programs in satellite technology within the Inited States. Different programs from the 1950s […]

The basic ArduSimple RTK kit includes Sapcorda SAPA. (Image: ArduSimple) ArduSimple has integrated Sapcorda’s SAPA Premium Service into its new simpleRTK2B+SSR GNSS receiver. The user-friendly integration based on SSR technology allows plug-and-play real-time kinematic (RTK) without the need for a base station. Users can connect the receiver to their PC or tablet to achieve centimeter-level accuracy. Based in Berlin, ArduSimple develops user-friendly, affordable RTK receivers and tools for evaluation of multi-band GNSS technology. The simpleSSR […]

June 25, 2020 In early March 2020, Dave and Cheryl Byng, their son, Max, and Lab, Ranger, set off on an adventure in their winter-equipped, expedition-ready Jeep. It was meant to be a productive, grand journey from Vancouver Island to the Arctic Ocean. While Dave, a Fellow for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, The Explorers Club and Royal Geographical Society as well as an expedition leader for Operation Wallacea, had plenty of experience traveling in […]

China-developed BeiDou navigation technology has made agricultural production smarter and more precise. Nanjing Agricultural University has developed the BeiDou-tech-supported unmanned wheat seeding and harvesting technology, empowering agricultural production with advanced navigation technology, according to the university. The new wheat production technology is a significant part of smart wheat production technology, according to Tian Yongchao, deputy director with the smart agriculture institute of Nanjing Agricultural University. The smart […]