GPS system may fall over, authorities say

[Clear to drop]

http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25512011-5014239,00.html (http://http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25512011-5014239,00.html)

THE US Government has warned that the worldwide network of satellites that makes up the Global Positioning System could fail by next year, affecting millions of people around the globe.

The rest of the article is at the link above.

How would this effect life as we know it?

[PlankBlender]

Those 'news' are government department and their interest/lobby group using the media to perpetuate scare stories as one tactic among others to drum up support for an increase in funding.

The European GNSS system will come live next year, and all receiver manufacturers, of course also avionics companies, will jump on that particular train very quickly, so expect to see dual GPS/GALILEO receivers in the next few years that will offer superior FDE capability.

Personally, I am not surprised the keeper of the GPS system are getting a bit nervous as they're going to compete with a technically 'fresher' system...

[smiling monkey]

A few other options are on the horizon, including the Chinese's Compass system;

Global Positioning System GPS Chinese (http://www.chinapage.com/space/GPS/Chinese/GPS.html)

[Howard Hughes]

It already has, just ask Forkie!:eek:

[RadioSaigon]

...their interest/lobby group using the media to perpetuate scare stories as one tactic among others to drum up support for an increase in funding...

Precisely. There's no way any GPS system is going to be allowed even a reduced capacity, far less to fall-over. Global commerce (far in excess of global aviation) is utterly reliant on GPS.

[Jet_A_Knight]

Back to farking NDB's:eek:

[Brian Abraham]

The US Government Accountability Office report is available here (61 pages)

U.S. GAO - Global Positioning System: Significant Challenges in Sustaining and Upgrading Widely Used Capabilities (http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-325)

A precis from the site

The Global Positioning System (GPS), which provides positioning, navigation, and timing data to users worldwide, has become essential to U.S. national security and a key tool in an expanding array of public service and commercial applications at home and abroad. The United States provides GPS data free of charge. The Air Force, which is responsible for GPS acquisition, is in the process of modernizing GPS. In light of the importance of GPS, the modernization effort, and international efforts to develop new systems, GAO was asked to undertake a broad review of GPS. Specifically, GAO assessed progress in (1) acquiring GPS satellites, (2) acquiring the ground control and user equipment necessary to leverage GPS satellite capabilities, and evaluated (3) coordination among federal agencies and other organizations to ensure GPS missions can be accomplished. To carry out this assessment, GAO's efforts included reviewing and analyzing program documentation, conducting its own analysis of Air Force satellite data, and interviewing key military and civilian officials.

It is uncertain whether the Air Force will be able to acquire new satellites in time to maintain current GPS service without interruption. If not, some military operations and some civilian users could be adversely affected. (1) In recent years, the Air Force has struggled to successfully build GPS satellites within cost and schedule goals; it encountered significant technical problems that still threaten its delivery schedule; and it struggled with a different contractor. As a result, the current IIF satellite program has overrun its original cost estimate by about $870 million and the launch of its first satellite has been delayed to November 2009--almost 3 years late. (2) Further, while the Air Force is structuring the new GPS IIIA program to prevent mistakes made on the IIF program, the Air Force is aiming to deploy the next generation of GPS satellites 3 years faster than the IIF satellites. GAO's analysis found that this schedule is optimistic, given the program's late start, past trends in space acquisitions, and challenges facing the new contractor. Of particular concern is leadership for GPS acquisition, as GAO and other studies have found the lack of a single point of authority for space programs and frequent turnover in program managers have hampered requirements setting, funding stability, and resource allocation. (3) If the Air Force does not meet its schedule goals for development of GPS IIIA satellites, there will be an increased likelihood that in 2010, as old satellites begin to fail, the overall GPS constellation will fall below the number of satellites required to provide the level of GPS service that the U.S. government commits to. Such a gap in capability could have wide-ranging impacts on all GPS users, though there are measures the Air Force and others can take to plan for and minimize these impacts. In addition to risks facing the acquisition of new GPS satellites, the Air Force has not been fully successful in synchronizing the acquisition and development of the next generation of GPS satellites with the ground control and user equipment, thereby delaying the ability of military users to fully utilize new GPS satellite capabilities. Diffuse leadership has been a contributing factor, given that there is no single authority responsible for synchronizing all procurements and fielding related to GPS, and funding has been diverted from ground programs to pay for problems in the space segment. DOD and others involved in ensuring GPS can serve communities beyond the military have taken prudent steps to manage requirements and coordinate among the many organizations involved with GPS. However, GAO identified challenges to ensuring civilian requirements and ensuring GPS compatibility with other new, potentially competing global space-based positioning, navigation, and timing systems.

[Captain Sand Dune]

"Back to farking NDB's"

Back to actually looking out and navigating for some!

[4Greens]

What they are really talking about is that they need money. Somehow there will be charging for satellite use. It has always been unrealistic that we should all, including commercial operators, get this grear resource for free.

[PlankBlender]

4Greens, I would beg to differ, there is a huge number of businesses out there (especially in the leisure market) whose business model is built on the availability of free navigational data, and the lobby work you see now is child's play compared to what would go on if ever (not likely IMHO) a proposal was fielded to try and charge for GPS reception.

Further indications that charges for basic GPS data reception are unlikely are the GPS competitors: Europe's Galileo offers free basic navigation service for everyone, and value-add services at a charge for commercial and military clients. The Russian GLONASS is also free (by government decree, Russian style :}). So the first one to charge would probably just lose business as the other two government backed systems would gladly gobble up the market share, and of course once receivers are out there, customers are locked in to a degree.

[Peter Fanelli]

4Greens, I would beg to differ, there is a huge number of businesses out there (especially in the leisure market) whose business model is built on the availability of free navigational data,


Free?
Free?

Where did you get the idea that it's free?

Do you think the system just suddenly appeared out of nowhere?

Of course it's not free, it comes out of my taxes.
Just like the 2.6 million that One Big Ass Mistake America has allocated to educate prostitutes in a chinese province on the dangers of drinking whilst working.
Or the $400,000.00 I'm spending researching the link between drinking and gay sex in a particular gay bar in Argentina.

Free indeed.
I wouldn't care if they shut the system down, I don't mind NDB approaches.

:ugh:

[Icarus2001]

A few other options are on the horizon, including the Chinese's Compass system;
Yes but the problem with the Chinese system is that after a position fix, within half an hour you need another fix.:hmm:

[PlankBlender]

Peter, you paying US taxes? It's free for the rest of the world, and hardly a huge part of the US budget, now, is it?!

Of course we could get into the whole tax/infrastructure debate, but I'd much rather open a bottle of red instead :}

In Oz, we benefit for once for being small, so we can use the infrastructure the big communities of the world put up and are willing to share as there is very limited unit cost..

[Peter Fanelli]

Peter, you paying US taxes? It's free for the rest of the world, and hardly a huge part of the US budget, now, is it?!


Yes, I am paying US taxes and no, in the eyes of the current big spender it's a minute portion of the budget. But alas the GPS system can't vote so it's unlikely he will spend any money on it.

[Angle of Attack]

Well one benefit will be all these new in-car navigation devices will fail causing chaos! What ever happened to reading a map? Due to a peculiarity in my street the odds start from one end and the evens start from the other, apparently my number appears about 400m down the road on these damn Navigation units, as I have received 3 calls from delivery drivers saying " I'm out the front of where your house should be but cant see the number ?" All I can say is the obvious, find the even side of the road and work your way towards my number! Reminds me of when GPS units were first introduced in GA people just went direct to and forgot the basic law of Navigation!
:ugh: