Soyuz ? Glonass K
A Russian government Soyuz rocket will launch a Glonass K navigation satellite. The Glonass K satellites are upgraded spacecraft for Russia??s Glonass positioning and timing network. The rocket will fly in the Soyuz-2.1b configuration with a Fregat upper stage. Delayed from Aug. 6, late August, and Oct. 17.
We have been upgrading our GPS constellation. Is this simply the Russians following suit?
?ÿ
Russia is trailing the pack on satellites. They are replacing satellites as they wear out, while US satellites have a lifespan a bit longer than GLONASS. But, Galileo and Beidou satellites are newer and have the stronger L5 equivalent frequency while US only has 5 or 6 satellites with L5. And I??ve read that when US sets a newly launched satellite as good in orbit, it gets put in backup for a satellite that is still good. So it seems new US satellites aren??t able to be used because they??ve made currently orbiting satellites ??too good?.
Where Galileo and Beidou put a major push to make their constellations full in a hurry, US is taking their good old time putting up the latest satellites with the new best signals. I??ve been hearing about L5 in the US for 15 years and it??s still not useful.
Other problems with GPS is the 32 PRN number limitation that is built into many of the receivers. The limiting was so poorly done by some manufacturers that to avoid confusing some receivers we have to actually limit active satellites to a 31 total. Have not seen any info on the possibility of using 64 PRNs in many years.
US has limited launches for budgetary reasons, plus it is volume. When you do not need a lot of new satellites the contract price per each increases. Looks like the launch price will be going down.
Paul in PA
Yes, from what I understand the K-series is just the next block of SVs for Glonass.
Concerning slow upgrades, one of the "problems" with GPS is that the previous generation SVs generally lasted long after their calculated lifespan, and they are not replacing them until they actually need to. I remember seeing an article last year about one of the Block II SVs that had a designed EOL around the year 2000, and they had just decommissioned it in 2019. Galileo and BeiDou have newer tech and additional signals because they were a full 25-30 years behind GPS.
And my circa 1998 12 channel L1/L2 receivers, (and 1995 8 channel ScoutMaster) work as well as the day they were delivered.
Granted, not up to today??s commercial application for speed of operation, and week rollover afflicted (which requires another step in the workflow), but mm for mm just as accurate as newer gear.?ÿ
Kind of like a T2 compared to a total station.?ÿ
Yes, I have been fighting a losing battle to retain older receivers as we upgrade our equipment, so we can run more efficient static networks. It's largely gone right over the heads of management that we can pick up and maintain older units for next to nothing. I miss being able to grab five or six receivers of varying vintage from the back of the garage whenever I needed to run a new control network.
a couple of Z-12, OPUS, conventional observations (total station) and Starnet. You do better, maybe faster. Maybe not as good.
But these days: red light green light receivers, heavily RTK dependent, is not state of the art, it??s state of the industry.
And for aerial mapping, post processing with a Z-12 base receiver, GPS only, is not a bad thing.?ÿ
And GPS on BMs. NGS wants 4 hours regardless. Fine use of a Z-12. (Week rollover just isn??t a problem. Fixing the day is part of downloading.)?ÿ
@larry-scott L1/L2 receivers are great if you work in flat open areas , but that??s rarely where my projects are. So L2C and L5, Galileo and Beidou will be beneficial to me.
Of course more is better. Not suggesting that bottom line isn??t the driving factor. As I noted: commercially no longer viable. Newer is faster, not inherently more accurate.?ÿ
Just like a T2 on a construction site is no longer profitable.?ÿ