Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) Simulator for Re-Entry Body Application

The development of a multi-channel GPS satellite signal simulator incorporating hypersonic re-entry effects is being proposed. The Phase 1 effort will focus on feasibility issues, Phase 2 hardware design issues, and a limited laboratory demonstrate of the concept using existing hardware. A GPS receiver on a hypersonic re-entry body is effected by the high dynamic environment and the plasma sheathing of the antennas. A GPS receiver in the loop simulator therefore has to simulate the re-entry dynamics, emulate reentry antenna pattern distortion effect, antenna impedance changes and increases in antenna noise temperature. The RIF signal generator, GPS code generator, carrier/code alignment have to follow the signal effects induced by the high dynamics of the re-entry trajectory and satellite orbital motion. The laboratory demonstration will test an actual GPS receiver in a simulated re-entry environment.