Insights

A primary focus of our customer’s research is centered around a product known as the Global Navigation Satellite System Test Architecture (GNSSTA – pronounced “Gangsta”).

Developed by The MITRE Corporation (MITRE), GNSSTA is a satellite navigation receiver that is capable of running on either a standard computer or on specialized hardware. In addition, GNSSTA includes a companion visualization suite, known as the Common Navigation Visualization Runtime Graphical User Interface (CNVRG – pronounced “Converge”), which provides a dashboard of graphs that display GNSSTA’s output in real-time. Riverside Research works in partnership with both AFRL and MITRE to implement new functionality in GNSSTA and new visualizations in CNVRG.

Continuing the evolution of GNSSTA is a critical concern to our customer. The introduction of new features allows our customer to deliver unparalleled mission capabilities to the user community, including support for new navigation signals, as well as offering new algorithms related to navigation signal processing. Furthermore, the implementation of new functionality positions our customer to effectively maintain and present GNSSTA as a leading and trusted solution for accurately testing signal acquisition, tracking, navigation message processing, and PNT generation.

In conjunction with this development, several members of the PNT team had the opportunity to contribute to a project known as Long-Term Orbit and Clock (LTOC). LTOC is an algorithm that accepts several initial conditions as inputs (i.e., information about the Sun, Moon, and each space vehicle, as well as a model that characterizes the Earth’s gravitational effects on the orbital estimates), then utilizes those inputs to drive PNT calculations.

LTOC is associated with Navigation Technology Satellite 3 (NTS-3). This Vanguard Program—a high-visibility United States Air Force and Space Force program designed to deliver groundbreaking mission capabilities—represents the development of a new space vehicle that will be utilized to test the next generation of satellite navigation capabilities and technologies. Scheduled to launch this year, NTS-3 represents the next navigational test platform of its kind (NTS-2, its predecessor, launched in 1977). This is a significant mission, because the tests conducted with NTS-3 will serve to define the future of satellite navigation.

The PNT team successfully integrated LTOC in GNSSTA and performed in-depth performance analysis. In the future, such research could lead to the deployment of techniques that would provide PNT to military users in contested environments that do not have continuous access to the GPS constellation broadcast signal.

As a highlight, the LTOC integration and analysis effort resulted in an abstract that was co-authored by our customer and Riverside Research. It was subsequently approved by the Joint Navigation Conference (JNC) technical review committee. JNC represents the navigation field’s premier military PNT conference, and includes participation by military branches, government organizations, researchers, and contract personnel. The abstract is available at the following URL: https://www.ion.org/jnc/abstracts.cfm?paperID=12277.

A paramount concern of the United States Armed Forces is the continued advancement of satellite navigation, which currently provides the most accurate method for determining the global location of troops and matériel. To ensure the technological evolution of the Global Positioning System (GPS), AFRL is highly interested in R&D that moves the state of the art forward. Riverside Research’s PNT team is incredibly proud to deliver high-impact contributions that serve this mission. By providing best-in-class research and subject matter expertise, our team directly contributes to reinforcing the United States as the preeminent leader in the field of PNT.