GPS Future

Missions using BlackJack receivers. NASA

Global Positioning System Future

The US Government is adding two additional civil signals for certain civilian applications: (1) a second civil signal at the GPS L2 frequency designated as L2C at 1227.60 MHz to meet the needs of high-precision science uses and (2) a third civil signal, designated as L5 at 1176.45 MHz to meet the needs of critical safety-of-life applications such as civil aviation. A fourth civil signal, designated as L1C, will be common with other Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) systems, such as the European Galileo and possibly the Russian Globalnaya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema or Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS). This fourth signal will be added to GPS Block III satellites, currently under development. GPS will be the primary federally provided radionavigation system for the foreseeable future and will be augmented and improved to satisfy future military and civil requirements for accuracy, coverage, availability, continuity, and integrity.

› Global Positioning System

Future of Global Positioning System Applications with NASA

Worldwide government and commercial spacecraft launch projections over the next two decades show that approximately 60% of future missions will operate in low-Earth orbit (LEO), and 95% of missions will operate at or below geosynchronous orbit (GEO). Many of these space users could meet their real-time navigation needs through GPS, thereby reducing the burden on NASA’s tracking stations.

Since most future missions will utilize GPS satellite signals for tracking, NASA is developing specialized GPS receivers for space applications, many of which are already in use:

The Navigator Receiver from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) utilizes the L1 C/A signal. This receiver flew on the Servicing Mission 4 for the Hubble Space Telescope in May 2009 and proved to be very successful. A number of future missions in HEO, GEO and MEO plan to work with this receiver using its high sensitivity signal acquisition and tracking capabilities.

The BlackJack Flight GPS Receiver from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) utilizes both the L1 and L2 frequencies, with eighteen receivers already in orbit tracking GPS signals. The newly emerging Triple GNSS (TriG) Receiver is under development, with the capability to track a number of GPS and other GNSS signals, to include the Russian GLONASS and the European Galileo constellations.

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