GPS, But 100 Times Stronger

My guest today is Tyler Reid, co-founder and CTO of Xona, a company building the first commercial satellite navigation system.

We get into why Tyler and his team are moving satellites into low Earth orbit and what that unlocks. Stronger signals that can penetrate indoors, more resilient timing infrastructure, and better security against jamming and spoofing.

GPS sits 20,000 kilometres out. Xona sits at 1,100, with signals around 100 times stronger and a planned constellation of 258 satellites. Tyler came at this from the autonomous vehicle world at Ford, where the problem was simple enough: ten meters gets you to the store, but it doesn't keep a car in its lane.

We also talk about time, and how much of the world quietly depends on GPS to keep its clocks honest. Why countries are suddenly so interested in owning their own infrastructure. And the question Xona gets asked constantly: if you're broadcasting that close to GPS, aren't you the jamming problem?

If you're interested in what the future of GNSS might look like, you're really going to enjoy this one.

More at xonaspace.com, or reach out to Tyler on LinkedIn.