Slashdot Mirror
Europe Building Their Own GPS
An anonymous reader writes "BBC News is reporting that Europe is planning to build their own satellite-navigation network that will be backward and forward compatible. There's going to be 5 levels ranging from free (1m accuracy) to commercial (1cm accuracy)! Provision is also being made for a search and rescue mode where a signal can be sent to confirm that help is on the way. The system will supposedly even work with existing US network after upgrades to the network."
They did not get a "kill switch". What did happen was that the operating frequency was moved further apart from a common US military band so that the US could jam the signal (locally) without inadvertantly jamming their own military communications.
Try here http://www.spacedaily.com/news/milspace-04zc.html
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http://www.thespacereview.com/article/368/1t mt m5 .shtml1 2&tid=2152 5/1356202&tid=160m l?tid=126&tid=1030 7&mode=thread&tid=103&tid=126&tid=99&threshold=-1
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1718125.s
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1862779.s
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jul2001/spac-j2
http://www.nti.org/e_research/e3_44a.html
http://www.ciaonet.org/olj/fa/fa_mayjune01a.html
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/22/16382
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/
http://slashdot.org/articles/04/12/16/1324209.sht
and in particular : http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/12/01/12262
just what i found with a little effort....
How would it be different from the current system, except for some marginally useful increases in accuracy and the inability to shut it off during a war if it's being used by enemy missles?
One big benefit (as the article clearly stated; I can recommend reading it), is the much improved accuracy - 1m or so on the open, free channel, 1cm with error estimation for subscribed service, whereas 5-10m is normal for GPS.
A second benefit is that it works better in restricted environments, like beneath a forest canopy, or among high-rises. As anyone using GPS to navigate big cities know, accuracy can rapidly drop to 20 meters or worse, which is frankly no longer all that useful when you're trying to locate a particular adress. A third, associated benefit is that the system takes a lot shorter time to lock on when you start your receiver. Again, in a city, you may have to wait for upwards of five minutes, moving around all the while, before the receiver finds four satellites and figures out where you are.
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