Japan’s first navigation satellite gets into position

Japan’s first navigation satellite has reached position above Japan and will be used to improve GPS coverage in mountainous terrain and urban canyons.
March 1, 2012 Read time: 1 min

Japan’s first navigation satellite has reached position above Japan and will be used to improve GPS coverage in mountainous terrain and urban canyons.

The Michibiki satellite, positioned some 33,000 kms over Japan, will undergo three months of testing and commissioning before it enters service. Japan is planning to launch a further two satellites, depending on the performance of the first unit in space.

Location Based Systems

Related Content

  • Smart Spanish city trials cell-based traffic management
    November 7, 2013
    David Crawford reports on an urban electronic nervous system. The northern Spanish city of Santander – historically a port - is now an emerging technology showcase attracting global attention as a prototype for a medium-sized smart city of the future. In a move to determine the optimal use of available data, it is creating a de-facto experimental laboratory for sensor and mobile phone-based urban traffic management and environmental monitoring innovations.
    Read More
  • Positive outlook for Q-Free
    August 15, 2013
    Q-Free reported revenue of US$25 million for the second quarter 2013, an increase of 29 per cent from the same quarter last year. Operating profit (EBIT) improved to a positive US$51,000 from an operating loss of US$3.8 million in the same period last year. Loss before tax was reduced to US$391,000 from a loss of US$3.9 in the second quarter 2012. The improved earnings mainly reflect changes in the revenue composition, with higher product and service and maintenance revenue.
    Read More
  • Researchers devise snow ploughing algorithm
    September 16, 2014
    Canadian researchers Olivier Quirion-Blais, Martin Trépanier and André Langevin have developed an algorithm to determine the most efficient routes for snow ploughs and gritters. Snow plough routing has always been something of a ‘black art’: to direct a fleet of show plough to clear priority roads without having the same road cleared several times while others are left untreated. Increasingly, GPS is being used to track the routes the clearing vehicles have taken but until now it has not been possible to ta
    Read More
  • App informs drivers of delays during Long Beach bridge replacement
    June 6, 2014
    David Crawford previews a work zone travel breakthrough. In February 2014, the Port of Long Beach in California launched what it claims is a groundbreaking construction zone navigation aid - LB Bridge mobile app. The app is designed to help drivers during the Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement programme by keeping them up to date on activity and the ensuing traffic diversions when construction starts in summer 2014. The unusually content-rich app is designed to convey current project news (enlivened by phot
    Read More

Highlighted Content