GLONASS (in Russian ГЛОНАСС is a Acronyme for ГЛО бальная НА вигационная С путниковая С истема is GLO bal' naya NA vigatsionnaya S putnikovaya S istema, which means S ystème GLO ball of NA vigation by S atellite) is the name of the Système of positioning used currently by the Russia.

Presentation

Program GLONASS was born in the Années 1980, during the Cold war. The satellites which compose it receive the name Ouragan (11F654) and their realization is entrusted to the K.B.P.M. of Zhelenogorsk. Of a mass of 1413 kg, they are put into orbit by group of three on orbits at 19  130 km, contained in three tilted orbital plans of 65 degrees approximately.

The September 24th 1995, the 24 satellites of the constellation were placed in orbit. The last satellites are operational as from January 1996. But since the fall of the Soviet Union, the appropriations allocated with system GLONASS did not cease dropping and in October 2000, only six satellites are in a position to function. In front of the urgency of the situation, the Russian authorities launch the starting of two new generations of satellites: Hurricane-MR. and Hurricane-K at increased lifespan.

The shooting of 2003 carries the first Hurricane-MR., its precision is of 20 m in the horizontal plane, of 30 m in the vertical plan and 5 cm/s of speed. Its lifespan is seven years. Currently (January 9th 2007) 16 satellites are in orbit. A launching the December 25th 2006 placed three new satellites orbits those of them but were not activated yet.

In November 2003, a declaration of intent is signed between the Russian federal Space agency and the Indian Organization for space research to study the possibility of putting on orbit of the Hurricane-K at the means of Indian launchers.

The Hurricane-K weigh approximately 745 kg, their precision is of 14 m in the horizontal plane, of 20 m in altitude, 5 cm/s of speed and can beings launched by group of six by launchers Proton - M/Briz-M. The launching of the first Hurricane-K is planned for 2008.

The studies concerning a fourth generation of satellites Hurricane-km began in 2002, their startup is planned for 2015.

Recently, signal GLONASS is used in the civil field by the Géomètre S and the topographers which make use of satellite receivers compatible with signals GPS and signals GLONASS. The system of Overlay EGNOS uses jointly the signals GPS and GLONASS.

However GLONASS uses the Russian geodetic system PZ-90 which is appreciably different from the system WGS 84 and as the parameters of transformation between the two geodetic systems are not known precisely, it is appropriate to pay well attention to the systems to which one refers.

Composition

Like all the systems of positioning by satellites, GLONASS is composed of two parts:

• the space part consists of 24 satellites, distributed on 3 orbital levels at an altitude of 19  100 km. Contrary to the satellites of the American system each satellite repeats the same orbit after 8 days. Each orbital plan includes/understands 8 satellites. Currently (2006) 2 plans are complete.
• the part on the ground is made up of 5 stations, the principal one is with Krasnoznamensk in the area of Moscow.

At the end of 2007,18 satellites were placed on orbit, which allowed the cover of all the Russian territory. The permiers apparails of positioning are envisaged to be marketed at the end of December 2007.

The Russian Space agency (Roskosmos) envisages the end of déployement of the 24 satellites covering the whole world towards the end 2009.

Co-operation

Russia stated that it was interested to cooperate with the future system of positioning of the European Union, Galileo. System GLONASS would however not be abandoned, but Galileo would be its complement starting from its true service entrance (towards 2012).

External bond

• - Official site

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