The Southern Positioning Augmentation Network (SouthPAN), which will improve satellite positioning for Australia and New Zealand, will be administered by Lockheed Martin Australia under a 19-year, $1.18 billion contract.
According to the government, the service will increase precision from the present five to ten metre range to “as little as 10 cm.”
Governments in the past have experimented with technologies throughout time in an effort to increase precision to within five centimetres.
A variety of use cases, including emergency services, agriculture, and mining, which is increasingly using automation and cutting-edge collision avoidance systems at its sites to improve safety, could benefit from the precision.
Last week, Geoscience Australia and Lockheed Martin Australia inked a contract.
According to the administration, the system “will deliver the first services in the coming weeks.”
Lockheed Martin Australia is required by the contract to “establish a network of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) reference stations, a corrections processing facility, and satellite uplink facilities that will enable accurate and reliable positioning signals to be transmitted from satellites to users.”
From 2028, SouthPAN services will be completely operational throughout the two nations.
Geoscience Australia and Toit Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand collaborate on SouthPAN (LINZ).
