Recent advances in GNSS: Technical and legal aspects

Abstract

The use of artificial satellites for navigational purposes started with Sputnik-I on 04th October, 1957. Transit-I was the first navigation satellite system and observations made on signals from the first Sputnik was started in December 1958. And thus Transit-I became a worldwide navigation system starting from 1964. Soon, it became clear that a global navigation satellite system had much to offer particularly for military users. Consequently, Following the system design studies during 1967–1969, U.S. DoD (Department of Defence) developed a worldwide a space-based navigation system in 1970s. And this system was called as NAVSTAR GPS (NAVigation Satellites by Timing And Ranging Global Positioning System). GPS, originally, was developed to satisfy the U.S. military operational need for a precise navigation system and has been used only for U.S. military purposes until 1980s. But later realizing its potential civil uses, it has been opened to all users free of charge starting from 1980. On the other hand, development of GLONASS began in the Soviet Union in 1976 and the “constellation” was completed in 1995. With the advent of GLONASS system, the term GNSS was begun to be used. As an economic and globally available accurate source of positioning and timing information, GNSS contributes to emerging technologies and applications. Some widely used GNSS-related emerging trends are LBS, multi-modality (road, aviation, maritime and rail), agriculture, surveying, Internet of Things, Big Data, Augmented Reality, Smart Cities, and Multimodal Logistics. On the other hand, using positioning info from GNSS and satellite images from, e.g., QuickBird data, together with digital maps (e.g. Google Earth/Maps) have increased their importance at the national and international levels. And thus, obtaining and using above mentioned data have brought some administrative and legal problems together.