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.

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[shibumi]

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.....)

[tallyhoe]

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

[mindburglar]

To be renamed “Skynet”.

[shibumi]

.....and your point is?

[tallyhoe]

No point just a statement!

[metalcor]

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?

[Bobalu]

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

[Richard from IL]

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

[dalereed]

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

Not true.

Nexgen ATC system is at least 10 years off.

[tallyhoe]

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

[Sarajevo]

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?

[Bobalu]

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.

[Quix]

Wisdom is wisdom.

imho

You have an uncommon amount in abundance.

Great having you on FR.

[visualops]

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

lol gps can be way more wrong that that

[bmwcyle]

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

[rusty millet]

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

[Jonah Hex]

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...

[ops33]

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.”