GPS Translator Record and Interface System (TRIS)

Abstract

Global Positioning System (GPS) translator signals have been used to track U.S Navy Trident missile test launches for the past 15 years. Absolute position accuracies of better than 20 meters in real-time and 8 meters in post mission have been consistently demonstrated. Flight qualified GPS translators 40 cubic inches in size have been developed for the U.S. Army Exoatmospheric Re-entry Vehicle Interceptor Subsystem (ERIS) program and are currently available for use by U.S. and allied government test ranges. More widespread use of GPS translators is constrained, however, by the great expense and size of the custom ground equipment currently used to acquire GPS translator signals and compute the position and velocity of the vehicle. To address this problem, the U.S. Air Force Western Space and Missile Center (WSMC) placed 3S under contract to design a lower-cost GPS translator processor based mainly on using commercial telemetry equipment. This paper describes how a working prototype was constructed to demonstrate the feasibility of the Translator Record and Interface System (TRIS). This prototype shows that TRIS can be built from a combination of commercially-available telemetry equipment, GPS equipment developed for the U.S. Air Force Range Applications Joint Program Office (RAJPO), and a few elements of custom equipment.