AFRL Scholars Program

Advanced Satellite Navigation Concepts (Internship)

The Space Communication and PNT (SCPNT) program researches next generation satellite navigation (SatNav). Research areas include: advanced SatNav signals and signal exploitation, spacecraft payloads, SatNav control systems and PNT situational awareness. Technology areas include: digital and RF signal processing, software defined radios, RF signal generation and broadcast, encryption, machine learning and command and control technologies. Research is performed both in a laboratory simulated environment and in the field. The SCPNT program is developing new SatNav concepts. These concepts need to be further defined, their feasibility analyzed, and initial performance characteristics estimated before the concepts can be advanced. An intern project would involve building a model of the concept in an appropriate environment (possibilities include Matlab, Simulink, software defined radio, etc.), calculating link budgets, estimating the size, weight, and power (SWaP) of a transmitter/receiver, estimating receiver performance in the presence of an appropriate noise model, developing machine learning tools to identify and characterize contested environments, etc.