The National Executive Committee for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) is a United States Government organization which advises and coordinates federal departments and agencies on matters concerning the Global Positioning System, space navigation, navigational references, and related systems.
It was established by Presidential Directive in 2004 and supersedes the Interagency GPS Executive Board.
The PNT is chaired jointly by the Deputy Secretaries of Defense and Transportation.
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radio navigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provides geolocation and time information to a GPS receiver anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. It does not require the user to transmit any data, and operates independently of any telephonic or Internet reception, though these technologies can enhance the usefulness of the GPS positioning information. It provides critical positioning capabilities to military, civil, and commercial users around the world. Although the United States government created, controls and maintains the GPS system, it is freely accessible to anyone with a GPS receiver.
Loran-C is a hyperbolic radio navigation system that allows a receiver to determine its position by listening to low frequency radio signals that are transmitted by fixed land-based radio beacons. Loran-C combined two different techniques to provide a signal that was both long-range and highly accurate, features that had been incompatible. Its disadvantage was the expense of the equipment needed to interpret the signals, which meant that Loran-C was used primarily by militaries after it was introduced in 1957.
National Executive Committee is the name of a leadership body in several organizations, mostly political parties:
A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geopositioning. A satellite navigation system with global coverage is termed global navigation satellite system (GNSS). As of 2023, four global systems are operational: the United States' Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, and the European Union's Galileo.
The Interagency GPS Executive Board (IGEB) was an agency of the United States federal government that sought to integrate the needs and desires of various governmental agencies into formal Global Positioning System Planning. GPS was administered by the Department of Defense, but had grown to service a wide variety of constituents. The majority of GPS uses are now non-military, so this board was fundamental in ensuring the needs of non-military users.
The Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) is a unit of the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT). It was created in 2005 to advance transportation science, technology, and analysis, as well as improve the coordination of transportation research within the department and throughout the transportation community.
Bradford Parkinson is an American engineer and inventor, retired United States Air Force Colonel and Emeritus Professor at Stanford University. He is best known as the lead architect, advocate and developer, with early contributions from Ivan Getting and Roger Easton, of the Air Force NAVSTAR program, better known as Global Positioning System.
The Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), also known as Michibiki (みちびき), is a four-satellite regional time transfer system and a satellite-based augmentation system developed by the Japanese government to enhance the United States-operated Global Positioning System (GPS) in the Asia-Oceania regions, with a focus on Japan. The goal of QZSS is to provide highly precise and stable positioning services in the Asia-Oceania region, compatible with GPS. Four-satellite QZSS services were available on a trial basis as of 12 January 2018, and officially started on 1 November 2018. A satellite navigation system independent of GPS is planned for 2023 with seven satellites. In May 2023 it was announced that the system would expand to eleven satellites.
X-ray pulsar-based navigation and timing (XNAV) or simply pulsar navigation is a navigation technique whereby the periodic X-ray signals emitted from pulsars are used to determine the location of a vehicle, such as a spacecraft in deep space. A vehicle using XNAV would compare received X-ray signals with a database of known pulsar frequencies and locations. Similar to GPS, this comparison would allow the vehicle to calculate its position accurately (±5 km). The advantage of using X-ray signals over radio waves is that X-ray telescopes can be made smaller and lighter. Experimental demonstrations have been reported in 2018.
GPS Block III consists of the first ten GPS III satellites, which will be used to keep the Navstar Global Positioning System operational. Lockheed Martin designed, developed and manufactured the GPS III Non-Flight Satellite Testbed (GNST) and all ten Block III satellites. The first satellite in the series was launched in December 2018.
PNT may refer to:
The Institute of Navigation (ION) is the world's premier non-profit professional society advancing the art and science of positioning, navigation and timing. It was founded in 1945 and serves communities interested in navigation and positioning on land, air, sea and space. It is a worldwide organization with members in more than 50 countries.
An inertial navigation system (INS) is a navigation device that uses motion sensors (accelerometers), rotation sensors (gyroscopes) and a computer to continuously calculate by dead reckoning the position, the orientation, and the velocity of a moving object without the need for external references. Often the inertial sensors are supplemented by a barometric altimeter and sometimes by magnetic sensors (magnetometers) and/or speed measuring devices. INSs are used on mobile robots and on vehicles such as ships, aircraft, submarines, guided missiles, and spacecraft. Other terms used to refer to inertial navigation systems or closely related devices include inertial guidance system, inertial instrument, inertial measurement unit (IMU) and many other variations. Older INS systems generally used an inertial platform as their mounting point to the vehicle and the terms are sometimes considered synonymous.
Locata Corporation is a privately held technology company headquartered in Canberra, Australia, with a fully owned subsidiary in Las Vegas, Nevada. Locata has invented a local positioning system that can either replace or augment Global Positioning System (GPS) signals when they are blocked, jammed or unreliable. Government, commercial and other organizations use Locata to determine accurate positioning as a local backup to GPS.
Inside GNSS (IG) is an international controlled circulation trade magazine and website owned by Gibbons Media and Research LLC. It covers space-based positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) technology for engineers, designers, and policy-makers of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). In the United States, GNSS is identified mainly with the government-operated Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS). InsideGNSS.com is the complimentary website of online news, events, digital newsletters, and webinars, and archived magazine articles.
The Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN) is a learned society and a professional body for navigation. The RIN was founded in 1947 as a forum for mariners, pilots, engineers and academics to compare their experiences and exchange information. Today it is a leading centre for promoting knowledge in navigation and its associated sciences, including positioning, timing, tracking and conduct of a journey, whether on, in, over or under land, sea, air or space. The Institute has members in over 50 countries worldwide.
Navigation is an open access academic journal about navigation published by the Institute of Navigation in cooperation with HighWire Press. Its editor-in-chief is Richard B. Langley; its 2021 impact factor is 2.1. The Journal Citation Reports categorizes the journal under aerospace engineering, remote sensing, and telecommunications.
Washington Yotto Ochieng is a Kenyan academic who is Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London. Previously, he was Head of the Centre for Transport Studies and Co-Director of the Institute for Security Science and Technology(ISST) together with Deeph Chana. Ochieng is a Senior Security Science Fellow in ISST. He also serves as Director of the Engineering Geomatics Group and Chair of Positioning and Navigation Systems.
The United Kingdom Global Navigation Satellite System was a United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) research programme which, between May 2018 and September 2020, developed outline proposals for a United Kingdom (UK) owned and operated conventional satellite navigation system, as a British alternative to the European Union (EU) owned and operated Galileo Global Navigation Satellite System. The main reason was to provide a national and independent system, to ensure UK security following its withdrawal from the EU as a result of Brexit. It was fully supported by the Ministry of Defence.
The Space Warfighting Analysis Center (SWAC) is a direct reporting unit in the United States Space Force responsible for conducting analysis, modeling, wargaming, and experimentation to create operational concepts and force design guidance for the service. It is the Space Force's counterpart to the Air Force Warfighting Integration Capability and United States Army Futures Command. It is headquartered at Washington, D.C.