For next week’s meeting, we are honored to have Dr. Penina Axelrad as our guest speaker.  She will be providing an Overview of Curriculum and Research in GNSS in Aerospace Engineering Sciences at CU-Boulder.

 Dr. Axelrad is the 2009 recipient of the Kepler Award, honoring individuals during their lifetime for sustained and significant contributions to the development of satellite navigation. She has an extensive history of significant contributions to the field of satellite navigation including receiver autonomous GPS integrity monitoring (RAIM), GPS bistatic radar, satellite formation flying using GPS, GPS-based orbit and satellite attitude determination, and multipath characterization, modeling and mitigation. Additionally, Dr. Axelrad has authored or co-authored 37 peer reviewed journal papers relating to satellite navigation, written 85 conference papers, served as an author/associate editor of AIAA’s GPS “Blue Book”—the seminal two volume textbook: Global Positioning System: Theory and Applications.

Dr. Axelrad is currently a Professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado where she has been responsible for educating navigation engineers for the past 17 years. Her current research interest include: Global Positioning Systems (GPS) technology and applications for real-time satellite orbit and attitude determination, GPS surface reflections, GPS multipath characterization and mitigation, orbital dynamics and spacecraft rendezvous. Dr. Axelrad is a Senior Member of The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, a Fellow of The Institute of Navigation and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and is a past president of The Institute of Navigation. She was the recipient of the 1996 AIAA Sperry Award and 2003 ION Tycho Brahe Award. She received a PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University and a S.B. and S.M. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 In addition, we will be conducting nomination and election of officers for 2010.

 The meeting will begin @ 5:30pm with food provided.

 Below is the address and directions to the Analytical Graphics office:

7150 Campus Drive, Suite 260

Colorado Springs, CO 80920

Phone: 1.719.573.2600

 Take I-25 to the Woodmen Road exit – exit number 149

Proceed East and Turn LEFT onto Campus Dr.

AGI is located at 7150 Campus Drive in Suite 260

 Be sure to pass along to friend/colleagues.  We will ask for a headcount as we get closer to the meeting.

Due to inclement weather conditions, we have postponed our next meeting until Thursday, December 10th.  Meeting will still be held at Infinity Systems Engineering, 13560 Northgate Estates Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80921-7654 and begin at 5:30pm with free pizza.

We are honored to have Mark Crews (former GPS chief engineer at GPSW and currently Chief Technology Officer with ITT Space Systems) as our guest speaker during the meeting with the topic of ADS-B and how GPS supports this concept. 

ADS-B, or Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, is a key component of the FAA’s GPS satellite-based NextGen program, intended to replace the nation’s aging network of ground-based radar sites in the air traffic control system. The new system as designed will be 10 times more accurate than radar, according to the FAA.  ADS-B uses GPS signals to determine aircraft position. The code containing a plane’s flight data is automatically broadcast from the aircraft’s transponder once per second. Aircraft equipped to receive the data and ADS-B ground stations up to 200 miles away receive the broadcasts. Ground stations add radar-based targets for non-ADS-B-equipped aircraft to the mix and send all of the information back up to equipped aircraft, along with information on weather and flight restrictions. This data displays on cockpit screens and air traffic control displays.

The presentation will be posted to the RMS-ION website (http://rms.ion.org) prior to the meeting and dial-in information is 1-800-977-8002, code 58856129#, if you are unable to attend in person.

December 8 – RMS-ION meeting @ 5:30 pm

January 28 – Annual meeting w/officer elections @ 5:30 pm

Details to follow soon.

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