Range safety tracking and data processing system

Abstract

A universal use of the global positioning system ›GPS! network that is both low cost and versatile. It can be adapted for use in existing military and commercial missiles. Its modular design makes it extremely useful in various types of missiles and aircraft. The independent tracking system consists of a GPS receiver to collect data from 4 to 6 GPS satellites, computer›s! data processor›s!, data transmitter, data receiver and power supply. The GPS satellites are sampled at a high rate to meet user engineering, metric, and Range Safety data requirements. Data are processed using standard least squares fit or Kalman filter data processing algorithms. The resulting EFG EFG or XYZ earth centered time tagged vector is transmitted to a receiving station on the earth's surface or other vehicle.. This type vector was selected because it includes time, is universal, has a standard format, and is easily transmitted. Range Safety requires all their data be time correlated and must be received within a 600 millisecond time frame. The universal vector format allows instant use for tracking instrument drive, Range Safety display and engineering sampling. This greatly reduces current restrictions on delayed data, data format, mission turnaround time and the need for expensive ground data processing workstations. These cost reductions are necessary to keep the U.S. commercial GPS users competitive with those in other countries.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.