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GPS is getting an $8-billion upgrade
Los Angeles Times ^ | 5/23/2010 | W.J. Hennigan

Posted on 05/23/2010 11:04:14 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld

Without it, ATMs would stop spitting out cash, Wall Street could blunder billions of dollars in stock trades and clueless drivers would get lost.

It's GPS, and it's everywhere.

Although most people may associate the Global Positioning System with the navigation devices that are becoming standard equipment on new cars, GPS has become a nerve center for the 21st century rivaling the Internet — enabling cargo companies to track shipments, guiding firefighters to hot spots and even helping people find lost dogs.

"It's a ubiquitous utility that everybody takes for granted now," said Bradford W. Parkinson. He should know. Three decades ago, as a baby-faced Air Force colonel just out of the Vietnam War, Parkinson led the Pentagon team that developed GPS at a military base in El Segundo.

Now, scientists and engineers — including those at a sprawling satellite-making factory in El Segundo — are developing an $8-billion GPS upgrade that will make the system more reliable, more widespread and much more accurate.

The new system is designed to pinpoint someone's location within an arm's length, compared with a margin of error of 20 feet or more today. With that kind of precision, a GPS-enabled mobile phone could guide you right to the front steps of Starbucks, rather than somewhere on the block.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: gps; gpsconstellation; navigation; satellites; space; spacesystems; trimble; usaf; usmilitary
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1 posted on 05/23/2010 11:04:14 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
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To: sonofstrangelove

bookmark


2 posted on 05/23/2010 11:05:49 PM PDT by GOP Poet (Obama is an OLYMPIC failure.)
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To: sonofstrangelove; Salamander; Eaker; humblegunner; Slings and Arrows

This is the reason that three of my four vehicles are pre-1994 vintage, swept clean for any RFID tags in the parts and capable of off-road travel.

(Not paranoid, mind you - well, maybe just a little.....)


3 posted on 05/23/2010 11:08:59 PM PDT by shibumi (Pablo (the Wily One) signed up for the "Hippo Attack" ping list!)
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To: shibumi

Uh all Airplanes use this for guidance now! If it goes down planes will be grounded!!!


4 posted on 05/23/2010 11:12:37 PM PDT by tallyhoe
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To: sonofstrangelove

To be renamed “Skynet”.


5 posted on 05/23/2010 11:27:44 PM PDT by mindburglar (I'm not "The Man" anymore. Stick it to someone else.)
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To: tallyhoe

.....and your point is?


6 posted on 05/23/2010 11:28:19 PM PDT by shibumi (Pablo (the Wily One) signed up for the "Hippo Attack" ping list!)
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To: shibumi

No point just a statement!


7 posted on 05/23/2010 11:32:35 PM PDT by tallyhoe
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To: GOP Poet

And if one can’t see into the future and the coming collapse of civilization as we know it as is evidenced in big and small ways virtually every day, it’s only because they won’t sit still long enough to see the anvil hovering above our heads. A little unintentional or intentional miscoded code and things go to the that crapper already teetering on the edge of a cliff. What’s up with the digital market, by the way?


8 posted on 05/23/2010 11:38:10 PM PDT by metalcor
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To: sonofstrangelove

The system is so precise that adjustments must be made because of the speed of the orbiting satellites. You see their speed changes the rate that time passes for the equipment on board compared to equipment on the ground. If the time rate change was not taken into account then the location data would be way off.

http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit5/gps.html


9 posted on 05/23/2010 11:46:06 PM PDT by Bobalu ( "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother." ..Moshe Dayan:)
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To: Bobalu

The article leaves out a lot of important details (it’s the LA Times, so that’s to be expected). The key predecessor system was NRL’s TIMATION, which used atomic clocks on satellites at mid altitudes (8 hour orbits preferred). GPS uses 12 hour orbits. See my article http://www.thespacereview.com/article/626/1


10 posted on 05/24/2010 12:49:50 AM PDT by Richard from IL
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To: tallyhoe

“If it goes down planes will be grounded!!!”

Not true.

Nexgen ATC system is at least 10 years off.


11 posted on 05/24/2010 1:02:06 AM PDT by dalereed
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To: dalereed

Oh I thought they were talking about upgrading the old system so it won’t go down!!!


12 posted on 05/24/2010 1:11:04 AM PDT by tallyhoe
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To: sonofstrangelove
Without it, ATMs would stop spitting out cash, Wall Street could blunder billions of dollars in stock trades and clueless drivers would get lost.

OK, I understand that some people can't read a map, but the article didn't mention how this affects ATM's and Wall Street.

Can anyone explain?

13 posted on 05/24/2010 1:17:16 AM PDT by Sarajevo (You're jealous because the voices only talk to me.)
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To: Richard from IL

Great article Richard!

You know your stuff :-)

The time warping effects of the Earth’s mass also have to be calculated for precise GPS data to be had. The clocks on the sats actually are fast compared to the clocks on the ground...their speed slows their clocks down, but not enough to make up for the ground clocks closer proximity to the plant mass...the mass slows time down relative to the farther away sats.


14 posted on 05/24/2010 1:23:22 AM PDT by Bobalu ( "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother." ..Moshe Dayan:)
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To: shibumi

Wisdom is wisdom.

imho

You have an uncommon amount in abundance.

Great having you on FR.


15 posted on 05/24/2010 3:14:04 AM PDT by Quix (THE PLAN of the Bosses: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2519352/posts?page=2#2)
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To: sonofstrangelove

compared with a margin of error of 20 feet or more today

lol gps can be way more wrong that that


16 posted on 05/24/2010 3:20:46 AM PDT by visualops (Proud Air Force Mom)
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To: sonofstrangelove

GPS is an important New World Order tool to track you. They can’t let is die.


17 posted on 05/24/2010 3:27:19 AM PDT by bmwcyle (NJ Governor Chris Christie for President)
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To: metalcor

Despite NASA’s assertion, THIS is the reason we will NEVER colonize and inhabit other worlds. Our Tom-Toms won’t work.


18 posted on 05/24/2010 3:30:09 AM PDT by rusty millet
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To: Sarajevo
From what I understand, some ATMs have a GPS receiver built into the unit which can pass its location to authorities by cell phone on demand. That way, when some yahoo yanks an ATM out of the wall with a logging chain and hauls it off to their secluded shack for disassembly, Detective Joe Friday can track it down and move in.

Here's an example.

Just the facts...

19 posted on 05/24/2010 3:54:23 AM PDT by Jonah Hex ("Never underestimate the hungover side of the Force.")
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To: Sarajevo

From the article:

“Although “positioning” is an obvious application of the technology, it’s also become a crucial timekeeper for the financial industry. Transactions made everywhere, from ATMs to Wall Street stock trades, are time-stamped using precise atomic clocks ticking within the GPS satellites. The clocks are accurate to one-billionth of a second. It’s a crucial technology for Wall Street, where a fraction of a second could mean billions of dollars.”


20 posted on 05/24/2010 4:39:29 AM PDT by ops33 (Senior Master Sergeant, USAF (Retired))
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