GPS is getting an $8-billion upgrade

Los Angeles Times ^ | 5/23/2010 | W.J. Hennigan

[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.

[BobL]

GPS is a great system to guide incoming missiles to their targets. So, for that matter, the military can turn it off at a moment’s notice.

Think about that the next time you drive in an unfamiliar town.

[Richard from IL]

Thanks for your kind comments. I suggest that you check out
http://www.cis.rit.edu/people/faculty/easton/NRL_GPS_Bibliography/NRL_GPS_Bibliography.pdf

They’re a lot of comments about relativistic effects especially p 74.

[Sarajevo]

ops33- Thanx, I missed that when I skimmed the article. That would make sense.

JH- Stealing an entire ATM never passed through my mind..........(heh-heh)!

[lrb111]

Odd as it may seem much of the internet would not operate without GPS timing/synchronization. I work for a Wireless Internet provider. We have no less than 9 hubs that require GPS in order for the synchronization to stay timed.

[GOP Poet]

Actually they have know for a very long time it needed an upgrade. Just have put off the inevitable because of the price tag. I have a few friends in very high places (oh lucky me—lol) and they have been talking for years that this needed to be done. It is just like knowing a furnace needs to be updated or a water heater. Just a REALLY expensive one!

[ops33]

Especially since GPS provides only 3 pieces of information; time, latitude and longitude, and height above sea level.