Alternate GPS Technology

The military relies heavily on the Global Positioning System (GPS) for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT), but GPS access is easily blocked by methods such as jamming.  In addition, many environments military operates (inside buildings, in urban canyons, under dense foliage, underwater, and underground) have limited or no GPS access.

To solve this challenge, Adaptable Navigation Systems (ANS) seeks to provide GPS-quality Positioning Navigation Timing (PNT) to military users regardless of the operational environment.


 U.S. Department of Defense’s DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)  is developing Adaptable Navigation Systems (ANS), which could be an alternate Positioning and Navigation Technology in the future

Source: DARPA

500 Kilobytes of Mystery & the discovery of First Digital Weapon

Computer worms  are usually 15-30Kb in size.

Liam O’Murchu, a computer expert analysing viruses and worm for six years at Symantec in the US.

One day when he went to his office at Southern California , he pulled out some files to analyse and to work which he received from his colleague in Europe.

The file was a computer worm which was spreading in Iran and other few countries.

He sat down and started to work on it. He found that the size of the worm was 500 Kilobytes which was very unusual.  Normally a worm size would be 15-30Kb in size.

He also found when he gone through the code that it was very complex and highly challenging.

He managed to decompress the file and the size of the unpacked worm was 1.18mb which was very unusual.

That computer worm was the most dangerous and the first digital weapon which sabotaged PLCs of Nuclear Power plant and its called Stuxnet.

IRNSS -1D, the fourth Navigational Satellite

IRNSS-1D is the fourth navigation satellite of seven satellites Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System(IRNSS) space segment.

After IRNSS-1A, IRNSS-1B  and IRNSS-1C,  IRNSS-1D was launched on March 28,2015.

IRNSS is an independent regional satellite system being developed by India.

IRNSS will provide two types of services:

1 .Standard Positioning Services (SPS)- which will be provided to all the user.
2. Restricted Service (RS) – which is an encrypted service provided only to the authourised users.

Application of IRNSS:
1. Terrestrial, Aerial and Marine Navigation
2. Vechile tracking and fleet management
3. Precise Timing
4. Terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travellers
5. Disaster Management
6. Integration with mobile phones.
7. Mapping and Geodetic data capture.
8. Visual and voice navigation for drivers.

Source & Courtesy: ISRO