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First modernized GPS satellite Launched

Posted by Hemos on from the keeping-up-with-the-neighbors dept.

A reader writes "The first GPS 2R-M satellite has launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on top of a Boeing Delta 2 rocket. The government is now competing with Europe's Galileo system, and has added two additional military channels and one civilian channel, which will increase the accuracy and performance of GPS - as well as increase its resistance to jamming."

5 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. You Will Be Assimilated! by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You know, I was about to ask the rocket scientists hanging around here (hi guys!) about how small new generation comsats were going to be. After all, there has been a tremendous increase in miniturization and technology since the original GPS sats were launched. (e.g. better microprocessors, denser batteries, more efficient solar panels, better propulsion, etc.) If we could get these sats small enough, it might be possible to deploy a GPS system for Mars in one or two launches.

    Then I saw the borg cube that assimilated the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory (Mirror) Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor.

    On another note, the picture makes it look like the design hasn't changed much from the original NAVSTAR configuration. I assume that these satellites are merely sharing the same chassis, and have very different internals?

    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    1. Re:You Will Be Assimilated! by josecanuc · · Score: 5, Informative
      Speaking of which, I am wondering what the heck those things on the antenna array are.

      Those *are* the antennas. See the spiral bits on both kinds? That's a conductive strip. It's a helical antenna -- common on satellites. The body that looks like the main bulk is just to give the thin metal something to hold shape.

  2. Spaceballs by q-the-impaler · · Score: 5, Funny

    Jammed? Raspberry. There's only one man who would dare give me the raspberry. Lone Starr!

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    Sierra Tango Foxtrot Uniform
  3. How do you compete with vaporware (Galileo)? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    " The government is now competing with Europe's Galileo system "

    Lets see :
            Galileo has not launched yet.
            Galileo will not be free.
            The 2R-M was planning before Galileo was anounced.
            Galileo operational capibility is not planned until 2008.

    I'm failing to see the link to the vaporware...

  4. Re:Look everyone! Somone who didn't RTFA! by cerberus4696 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You have to remember that they're overengineering these things by terrestrial standards, because the satellites have to withstand some fairly harsh conditions while in orbit (such as radiation, EM storms from solar flares, etc). I imagine they're also hardened to some degree against human-generated interference, given all the worrying the Air Force has been doing lately about space warfare. Given all that, I'm not surprised that they seem excessivly bulky by the standards of present technology.