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Navigation Satellites Over Europe
Snags writes "It looks like Europe is getting its own equivalent to WAAS (a set of ground stations and geostationary satellites which relay information to help GPS accuracy in the US). The EGNOS system system is having a base station inaugurated in Langen, Germany this week. The system augments signals from GPS and Russia's Glonass to provide 2-meter accuracy in Europe. This is the first stage of the Galileo system reported earlier, and I'm sure these satellites and base stations will perform the same function once the Galileo constellation is flying."
after big brother, now also little brother will be watching us...
sig(h)
i am curious, what kind of skill set would be necessary to apply for a job there? i have a unix background, but no knowledge about astronomy/ space tech whatsoever [although i think the whole thing is rather interesting]. maybe someone in the /. community has some ideas on how to get into this industry?
Satellite navigation is a weapon of mass destruction. Let's bomb them now!
Dupe post for dupe story....
Tragically we know how the US would like to react:
http://www.eetimes.com/sys/news/OEG20030522S0050
The nation's largest intelligence agency by budget and in control of all U.S. spy satellites, NRO is talking openly with the U.S. Air Force Space Command about actively denying the use of space for intelligence purposes to any other nation at any time not just adversaries, but even longtime allies, according to NRO director Peter Teets.
At the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs in early April, Teets proposed that U.S. resources from military, civilian and commercial satellites be combined to provide "persistence in total situational awareness, for the benefit of this nation's war fighters." If allies don't like the new paradigm of space dominance, said Air Force secretary James Roche, they'll just have to learn to accept it. The allies, he told the symposium, will have "no veto power."
This would not go down to well at all. I know the US economy/military is the biggest in the world - but I still think that a trade war/shooting war with every other country in the world isn't the best way of improving the lives of American citizens.
"Free software as in beer, copy protection as in racket" - Telsa Gwynne
It would not be good for anyone. Not just Americans. I am very afraid of the twisted logic working on the minds of many American officials. They think that they can enforce anything they want to everybody else , just because they have a bigger army. Things i am afraid are not that simple. EU will not stand silent and be told that can not go into space (or any other bullying US may come up with). The possibility of a future conflict arises quickly.
I would love to argue about how the size an army MANY times in history has proven to be irrelevant, but considering that both US and EU are "nuclear enabled" (TM), it is made clear that none can win is such a case.
I hust hope that this "we are the ones" mentality stops before it is too late.
Thank you.
Slashdot Sig. version 0.1alpha. Use at your own risk.
If allies don't like the new paradigm of space dominance, said Air Force secretary James Roche, they'll just have to learn to accept it.
Translation:
If allies don't like us invading Poland, they'll just have to learn to accept it.
Does anybody know how dependent the Galileo system will be on the US. I mean how many components will be manufactured in the states and will the states have export veto powers like it currently has on military equipment. For example when Israel wanted to sell radars to China they could not as some components were from US companies. Will the same apply to Galileo as in if the US decides some state like North Korea doesnt deserve GPS then will the Europeans be prevented from selling it ? Do note these decisions are a lot of times economic rather than related to national security. For example the states is pissed abt the russians selling Nuclear reactors to Iran not because these reactors can be used for weapons but because the contracts did not go to American companies and under current sanctions American companies cannot even subcontract for the Russians.
Or maybe Galileo is Europes way of getting out of exactly such a situation.
On a related note recently when India was evaluating Advanced Jet Trainers the two options were the British and the French but the French were favoured as they use no American components and are thus not hostage to American policy. India has suffered on this count earlier. India used to have a lot of Sea King helicopters produced by the British with American components but after the Nuclear tests the American prevented the British from supplying spare parts
**Life is too short to be serious**
One of the cleverest things the Galileo designers have come up with is to put their signal right in the middle of the US military GPS signal with an encrypted overlay. This means if in times of war the US tries to jam Galileo they jam their own military GPS and everyone is back to square one with civilian grade GPS which in any case everyone upto a Taxi driver has
**Life is too short to be serious**
It won't. Well over 90% of the software industry has no dependence on a particular platform or on selling shrink-wrapped software.
But let's assume you're right (which you aren't). Then so what? If the current big players can't outcompete volunteers, they don't really deserve to live on. And if US software developers can't find a way to compete with cheaper labour (despite having the advantages of being in place, knowing the language and customs, and having a great infrastructure), then their demise is also warranted. You want to get paid more than your competition, you had better be prepared to offer some other incentives in return. Arguing that "but we don't _want_ to compete" is not going to endear you to your prospective customers.
And if OSS shrinks the global market value of the IT industry (which it has no indication of doing; quite the opposite) - again, so what? Less people will find jobs in the industry, and those that do will not be paid as well anymore. Ask around to see what people in other disciplines with a comparable education earn, then ask yourself why you are entitled to a much higher salary. The answer is, you probably aren't.
Quite whining, get off your behind and either retrain to be able to offer real value, or get out of the industry.
US would like to say thanks and has asked the Middle East & Far East Asia to install similar systems, to make it easier and cheaper in case we need to LIBERATE THE HECK OUT OF ANOTHER COUNTRY
Hello my sane-minded American friend, I too am attempting to effect an escape from the U.K. into Europe. (I don't enjoy my country following the Bush administration round like a dog on heat).
:P
Now I haven't quite formulated a plan for escape yet but needless to say, I hope to use GPS for navigation en route.
Rumour has it that this may have been tried before, there is even talk of a tunnel having been built between the U.K and Europe!
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
One of the great improvements that WAAS offers over standard GPS is that it lets a user compute both a position and an error limit on that position. The position is guaranteed to be accurate within the error limit. Standard GPS gives you a position, but, can't "guarantee" that the position is correct. This is why the FAA doesn't allow standard GPS to be used as the primary navigation aid on an airplane during bad visibility conditions: there is no guarantee that the plane is going to find the runway where GPS says it is.
But when the FAA set the rules for determining how safe the error limit has to be, it pretty much guaranteed that the error limits broadcast by WAAS were going to be huge. (~30 meters) WAAS is way paranoid safe.
It will be interesting to see if EGNOS makes the same tradeoff between safety and usability that the WAAS system did. Maybe EGNOS will choose a less stringent safety requirement, and thus end up with smaller error limits.
Either way, both systems will probably have the same accuracy. (~1 meter)