SBIR Phase II: Space-Based Atmospheric and Integrity Monitoring for Mission-Critical Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT)

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是使数十亿人每天使用的全球定位、导航和授时（PNT）服务得到急需的改进。地球大气层会扭曲卫星（即全球定位系统）传送的PNT信号，导致最终用户在位置和时间精度上的错误，而这些错误是不容易消除的。该项目的目标是在系统级实时消除这些大气衍生的误差。这项工作将支持新的全球PNT服务，为许多下游应用的最终用户带来更精确的全球定位和定时精度（小于10厘米，小于1纳秒）。这种服务的全球精确定时将支持智能交通系统的扩展，使自动驾驶汽车更安全，同时降低设备成本。这些自动驾驶汽车包括未来几年预计将生产的数百万架无人机和汽车。此外，当室内可用时，全球精确定时服务将降低电力、电信和金融部门数百万关键基础设施设备的部署成本。这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目旨在精确绘制地球对流层和电离层地图，并利用小卫星星座演示自主卫星完整性监测。对大气进行适当的测绘可以消除天基PNT系统中由大气引起的误差。第一个研究目标是扩展PNT卫星的算法和数据处理框架，称为大气测绘和卫星完整性监测系统（AMSIM）。该研究将适应系统的实际约束，包括频谱和轨道构型。第二个研究目标是在轨道上演示AMSIM的主要要素，这将通过近地轨道上的两颗演示卫星来完成。第三个研究目标是将这些因素结合起来，以告知生产系统的真实PNT性能，以便可以清楚地传达给目标最终用户。预期的技术成果将是一个商业上可行和技术上可行的空间系统架构，使精确的全球PNT系统能够为最终用户提供10厘米和1纳秒的精度。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to enable much-needed improvements to global position, navigation, and timing (PNT) services that are used by billions of people every day. The Earth’s atmosphere distorts PNT signals transmitted by satellites (i.e. global positioning systems, GPS), which lead to end user errors in position and time accuracy that are not easily removed. The goals of this project are to remove these atmospheric-derived errors in real-time at a system level. The effort will support novel global PNT services that will bring more precise global positioning and timing accuracy (less than 10 cm, less than 1 nanosecond) to end users in many downstream applications. Global precision timing from such a service will support the scaling up of intelligent transportation systems, making autonomous vehicles safer while driving down equipment costs. These autonomous vehicles include the projected millions of drones and automobiles that will be manufactured over the next several years. In addition, a global precision timing service, when available indoors, will reduce the deployment cost of millions of critical infrastructure devices in power, telecommunications, and financial sectors.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project seeks to accurately map the Earth’s troposphere and ionosphere and demonstrate autonomous satellite integrity monitoring using a constellation of small satellites. Proper mapping of the atmosphere may remove atmosphere-derived errors in space-based PNT systems. The first research objective is to expand the algorithmic and data processing framework for PNT satellites, called the Atmospheric Mapping and Satellite Integrity Monitoring System (AMSIM). The research will be adapted to real constraints of the system including spectrum and orbital configurations. The second research objective is to demonstrate the major elements of AMSIM on orbit, which will be accomplished with two demonstration satellites in Low Earth Orbit. The third research objective is to combine these factors to inform the true PNT performance of the production system so that it can be clearly conveyed to target end users. The anticipated technical results will be a commercially-viable and technically-feasible space system architecture enabling a precision global PNT system that can offer 10 cm and 1 nanosecond accuracies to end users.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.