Tracking Launch Vehicles in Interference and Jamming

During the Phase I program, MARK Resources very successfully demonstrated the feasibility of using several distributed small and simple FRPAs that do not need to be precisely arranged, to suppress wideband interference and/or jamming and to provide sufficiently accurate and timely position and velocity measurements from the C/A code for launch vehicle range safety, antenna pointing, and attitude determination. The new technology, demonstrated via software simulation, is compatible with existing launch-capable GPS antennas and receiver hardware, and requires the addition of cabling and a common processor (and can accommodate channel mismatch in the receivers or added hardware). The processing load for jammer suppression is small, less than that for GPS signal tracking. The Phase I program employed signal simulation at the intermediate frequency (IF) of the receivers, after digitization. During Phase II, we propose to develop a demonstration unit consisting of launch-compatible antenna and receiver hardware plus processing software; and to measure its performance using a high-fidelity RF simulation.