Geodesy Demonstration Experiment (gedex) for Space Vlbi: State of the Art and Software Development

The aim of the GEDEX, which is being designed by an international team of scientists, is to explore the feasibility of Geodetic & Geodynamic applications of Space VLBI. In this paper, the outline of this experiment has been presented. A brief description of the Space VLBI technique has been provided, followed by a summary of the significant theoretical developments. Salient features of the VSOP mission, and an overview of the various aspects of GEDEX have been presented. The state of the art of software for Geodetic SVLBI has been outlined, and the different steps in software development for the GEDEX have been described in detail. Conclusions drawn from the work done so far, and recommendations for future work have been presented.