GPS Users Must Plan For Outages

Darren · Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:46 pm Post subject: GPS Users Must Plan For Outages

Source ITWeek. Anyone relying on GPS should have a fallback plan says Norman Bonnor, a retired RAF Air Commodore and president of the Royal Institute of Navigation.
"Too many people don't understand its foibles and vulnerabilities," he added.

The GPS system relies on a network of satellites which cannot be repaired once launched and have a limited lifespan. Sixteen of the present 28 satellites were built to last seven and a half years, but are now between eight and 14 years old with twenty-four satellites required for full coverage.

With new satellite launches only only just matching current losses of around two satellites per year the system is already stretched and it would only take the unplanned failure of one or two satellites to bring the GPS system to a stop.

Read the original news item from ITWeek here
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Darren Griffin

julianbarker · Lifetime Member Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 431

This item is nothing - there are spares in orbit and new sats can be launched without a lot of delay - sats sit in secured hangers in shrink wrap waiting to go up when needed - read the Lockheed website. The worst thing would be to have loads of spares in orbit - they would mean the network of sats would be older and nearer failure than if you send them when you need them.

Also, it is not like a constelation with 22, 20 or even 18 sats would be useless. Yes, the system wold like there to be 12 in view at any time, but you only need three in different parts of the sky to get a very usable fix.

mikealder · Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 10:15 pm Post subject:

lbendlin · Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 3:06 am Post subject:

by the way, the new sat has launched successfully

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sfn_050925_delta2_gps2rm1.html
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h5djr · Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 4:23 pm Post subject:

Looks to me as though GPS is in safe hands.

DennyL · Regular Visitor Joined: Jan 24, 2004 Posts: 114

MKontic · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 11, 2005 Posts: 19

Wouldn't even go that far Den. In the unlikely event that GPS fails, then simply pop into a petrol station and spend a fiver on a new map. Won't be anywhere near as good as GPS, but by using the map and asking local folk, it will get you to your destination.
Idea

Skippy · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 1:07 am Post subject:

JonnyW · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 16, 2005 Posts: 39

My opinion is that the Global Positioning System will never fail.

This system is too valuable to the US Government for them to allow any problems or outages to creep in. The USG have recently deployed new satellites into orbit (with more to follow) which will upgrade the current system and provide new satellites in the constellation.

These new satellites will provide 2 additional channels for the US Military (delivering an anti-jam system) and second channel for Civillian receivers.

The US Military alone rely on GPS too heavily to allow ANY failure - with some 94% of all cruise missiles and long range Continental Ballistic Missiles launched in "Operation Shock and Awe" and throughout the Iraq war being GPS guided.

I think we're safe for now and I personally am not too concerned with these claims.

The new GPS system is due to be in place and fully operational around the same time Galileo will be activated for our use, in 2010.

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nej · Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 5:30 pm Post subject:

Galileo will take a lot of of Europe's reliance when it comes into operation anyway.

GPS is unlikely to fail, what is most likely is that the military would move sats around to give better coverage to specific areas, which would therefore leave areas with less coverage.

Anyway, more to the point, as somebody said earlier, buy a map!

I work in vehicle tracking and during the last Gulf war there was talk of switching of the GPS network. I forwarded a couple of stories on it to our CEO who basically said "not a lot we can do about it" and that's exactly right.

The US military are aware that it's used by a lot of critical things now, and if coverage falls below a certain amount it's classed as something like "hazardously-misleading information" so they take it all very seriously.

Darren · Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 5:56 pm Post subject:

Gmonkey · Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 8:49 pm Post subject:

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