First Fix: So many questions

(Photo: Adam Smigielski/iStock / Getty Images Plus/Getty Images)

One of my favorite parts of this job — and, more generally, one of my favorite things to do in life — is to ask questions.

Matteo Luccio

For this magazine and to stay on top of the latest issues and trends in our industry, I ask questions to the members of our Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) for our EAB Q&A section, to representatives of GNSS/PNT companies for our cover stories, and to participants at conferences and trade shows.

In my personal life, I ask questions to people I invite on sailing trips, to dinner parties and on hikes. When I am traveling or just about town, if I overhear somebody knowledgeable speak about an interesting topic — from quantum mechanics to French politics to Baroque music — chances are that I will say, “Excuse me. May I ask you a question?”

So, here are a few of my current questions about GPS/GNSS/PNT. To make it clear that they are not in order of importance, I put them in alphabetical order.

• How do the other three GNSS constellations benefit GPS users?
• How is GPS faring in Congress? (On June 17, Dana Goward reported that Congress had refused the U.S. Space Force’s request to fund a program to make GPS more resilient by building and deploying small GPS satellites. Please note: I am looking for a knowledgeable “Washington correspondent” for GPS World, who could keep our readers updated on relevant developments in Congress and the executive branch.)
• If the QZSS or NavIC regional systems became global, would that significantly improve GNSS? If so, how?
• What are currently the most promising approaches to non-GNSS PNT for applications that do not require high accuracy?
• What are the benefits of adding signals from even a few low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites to a PNT solution?
• What are the latest advancements in the scientific uses of GNSS signals, such as to develop models of the ionosphere or to test theories in fundamental physics, such as relativistic positioning?
• What are the most promising approaches to pinpointing GNSS interference from LEO satellites?
• What is the most promising approach to high-precision positioning with smartphones?
• What is the status of the Chimera enhancement to the L1C signal? What benefits will it deliver?
• What reforms in GPS governance would help accelerate modernization of the system?
• When will M-code GPS user equipment be widely deployed to U.S. armed forces?
• When will the Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX — the future version of the GPS control segment) become operational? What’s missing? What’s the holdup? (According to GPS.gov, the U.S. Space Force completed all 17 planned monitor station installations in July 2021.)
• Which GNSS signals are cellphones in the U.S. legally allowed to use?

I will pose some of these questions to our EAB over the next few months. If anybody else out there would like to chime in, please let me know.