Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Satellite Glitch Rekindles GPS Concerns

Posted by samzenpus on from the close-enough dept.

coondoggie writes "News today that the Air Force is investigating signal problems with its latest Global Positioning System satellite is likely to rekindle the flames of a congressional report last month that said the current GPS coverage may not be so ubiquitous in the future. The Air Force stated that routine early orbit checkout procedures determined that the signals from the Lockheed-built GPS IIR-2 (M), which was launched in March, were inconsistent with the performance of other GPS IIR-M satellites. The Air Force said it has identified several parameters in the GPS IIR-20 (M)'s navigation message that can be corrected to bring the satellite into compliance with current GPS Performance Standards."

5 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Soloution? by PeterBrett · · Score: 5, Informative

    Soloution? Pour more money into NASA!

    Um, the GPS constellation belongs to the USAF.

    --
    Pirate Party UK
  2. Could it be related to this ? ;-)) by ls671 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Could it be related to this ? ;-))

    http://idle.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/12/1713237

    Hehe... ;-)

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  3. Followup on the story by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    According to Air Force officials, the previous story was incorrect and the GPS are working properly. The person responsible for the false story has been apprehended and will face a military tribunal. These are not the droids you are looking for.

    Move along.

    1. Re:Followup on the story by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Informative

      Pretty much. Of course, any current problems with GPS are likely to be fixed once GPS III is up and running. It will combine land-based positioners with satellites that have 500 times the transmitter power. Of course, that 'not so ubiquitous' factor is still there as GPS III will allow the U.S. military to shut down GPS to selected geographic areas at will to all but sanctioned receivers. ;)

      --
      My blog
  4. Re:GPS will be just fine by CosmicRabbit · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, from TFA the problem seems to be the new L5 frequency, which is "interfering with other signals from the satellite and reducing their accuracy"
    This is a little more serious than just some glitches in the software. It's a basic design problem.