http://www.gpsdaily.com/index.html Wed, 16 MAY 2012 20:27:52 AEST Wed, 16 MAY 2012 20:27:52 AEST en-us A fleet of 100 floating robots took a trip down the Sacramento River in a field test organized by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley. The smartphone-equipped floating robots demonstrated the next generation of water monitoring technology, promising to transform the way government agencies monitor one of the state's most precious resources. The Floating Sensor Network proje]]> Wed, 16 MAY 2012 20:27:52 AEST North Korea has stopped transmitting signals which jammed the GPS systems of hundreds of civilian aircraft and ships in South Korea for two weeks, officials said Tuesday. The state Korea Communications Commission said the signals designed to jam global positioning systems halted as of 8:34pm on Sunday. The transport ministry confirmed civilian flights had not been affected since Sunday n]]> Wed, 16 MAY 2012 20:27:52 AEST The northern lights interfere with radio communications, GPS navigation and satellite communications. Researchers are now going to launch 20 satellites containing world class instruments from the University of Oslo to find out why. Satellites are becoming increasingly important in communications and navigation. This makes us more vulnerable to the northern lights, especially within offshore and ]]> Wed, 16 MAY 2012 20:27:52 AEST The "Transneft" company and the Navigational Information Systems company have begun to create a system of transport monitoring with the help of GLONAS. The Russian GLONAS and the American GPS are now being used in Russia in different transport systems. All public government transport in Russia is to be fitted with GLONAS starting from this year. The "Transneft" company wants to estab]]> Wed, 16 MAY 2012 20:27:52 AEST A Moscow court upheld a ban on Friday prohibiting the Russian research and development company ScanEx from distributing satellite images of Earth at a resolution higher than two meters. Scanex works under license from the Russian federal space agency, Roscosmos, to collect, process and disseminate Earth remote sensing data. A 2008 ban prohibited ScanEx from distributing high-resoluti]]> Wed, 16 MAY 2012 20:27:52 AEST Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin appointed former First Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin as head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos on Friday, replacing Anatoly Perminov. Popovkin is a former Commander of the Russian Space Forces. Perminov, 65, will retire, as state officials are not usually allowed to serve after this age. Earlier this year he refuted rumors that he would]]> Wed, 16 MAY 2012 20:27:52 AEST Autonomous robots created by 11 teams of engineers from across the country will compete for a NASA prize purse of $1.5 million on the campus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), in Worcester, Mass., June 14 -17. The challenge: design and develop the next generation of robots to explore the landscapes of other worlds. The NASA-WPI Sample Return Robot Challenge requires the competing te]]> Wed, 16 MAY 2012 20:27:52 AEST A Soldier treks through treacherous terrain in a dangerous combat zone with a rucksack filled with meals ready-to-eat, first-aid gear, weapons, ammunition, radios and batteries. The U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command is lightening the Soldier's load by developing smaller and lighter batteries. Scientists and engineers are unburdening the Soldier, increasing maneuverabi]]> Wed, 16 MAY 2012 20:27:52 AEST China successfully launched the remote-sensing satellite Yaogan XIIII Thursday from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the northern province of Shanxi, according to a press release from the center. The satellite was carried into space aboard a Long March 4B carrier rocket which blasted off at 3:06 p.m. Beijing time, according to the center. The satellite will be used to conduct scien]]> Wed, 16 MAY 2012 20:27:52 AEST Just weeks after celebrating its tenth year in orbit, communication with the Envisat satellite was suddenly lost on 8 April. Following rigorous attempts to re-establish contact and the investigation of failure scenarios, the end of the mission is being declared. A team of engineers has spent the last month attempting to regain control of Envisat, investigating possible reasons for the problem. ]]> Wed, 16 MAY 2012 20:27:52 AEST More smartphones means more Americans are using the devices to get location information or to share their whereabouts with friends, a study showed Friday. A Pew Internet & American Life Project report found 74 percent of US smartphone owners use the device to get real-time location-based information, and 18 percent use a geosocial service to "check in" or share their location. Over the p]]> Wed, 16 MAY 2012 20:27:52 AEST The US space shuttle is no longer in service, and it will likely be several years before the United States can resume independent human spaceflight. As a result, China's upcoming Shenzhou IX mission to the Tiangong-1 space module will be viewed by some Americans with envy. Fortunately, as the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the commercial sector work to develop ]]> Wed, 16 MAY 2012 20:27:52 AEST Hammond's team includes Geoff Blewitt, Hans-Peter Plag and Corne Kreemer from the University of Nevada, Reno's College of Science and Zhenhong Li of the Centre for the Observation and Modeling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics, School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow in the UK. GPS data for Hammond and his team's research is collected through the team's MAGNE]]> Wed, 16 MAY 2012 20:27:52 AEST South Korea said Wednesday it would send formal complaints to North Korea and to UN agencies, urging Pyongyang to stop sending GPS jamming signals that have affected hundreds of civilian flights. The regulatory Korea Communications Commission will send a letter of complaint to Pyongyang while other agencies will contact the international organisations, the transport ministry said in a statem]]> Wed, 16 MAY 2012 20:27:52 AEST Raytheon has fired four Excalibur 155mm precision-guided artillery projectiles from the Denel-manufactured G6 self-propelled howitzer as part of a field trial demonstration. Multiple rounds of the combat-proven Excalibur successfully fired from the G6 155mm wheeled howitzer out to a range of 38 kilometers (23.6 statute miles), with all rounds landing within 5 meters (16.4 feet) of the targ]]> Wed, 16 MAY 2012 20:27:52 AEST