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India Successfully Launches Region-Specific Navigation Satellite
vasanth writes India has successfully launched IRNSS-1C, the third satellite in the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), early on October 16. This is the 27th consecutively successful mission of the PSLV(Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle). The entire constellation of seven satellites is planned to be completed by 2015. The satellite is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in the country as well as in the region extending up to 1,500 km from its boundary, which is its primary service area. In the Kargil war in 1999, the Indian military sought GPS data for the region from the U.S. The space-based navigation system maintained by the U.S. government would have provided vital information, but the U.S. denied it to India. A need for an indigenous satellite navigation system was felt earlier, but the Kargil experience made India realise its inevitability in building its own navigation system. "Geopolitical needs teach you that some countries can deny you the service in times of conflict. It's also a way of arm twisting and a country should protect itself against that," said S Ramakrishnan, director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram.
What the fuck.
How many countries have their own, in-house built GPS solutions?
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
I know of at least the following systems that exist or are being built: GPS (United States), GLONASS (Russia), Galileo (planned, European Union), Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (India), and the Beidou Navigation Satellite System (China). GPS and GLONASS, in particular, have been around a long time.
- David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
IRNSS sats are geostationary, they are positioned above india and dont move.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki...
With the added benefit that saying "8.460N,76.963E" is much faster than pronouncing this city name!
Dang. Didn't take them long to liquidate that guy...
Three of them yes. 3:4 in geostationary vs geosynchronous orbit of 1 sidereal day.
So, three will always be visible over india. Two of the other other four will be timed such that they are over India in a 24 hour period.
So, 5 satellites will provide a fix.
Hope that helps.
The thing is that other countries are likely to continue to appease the Muslims as usual - as the article says even though Pakistan illegally invaded parts of India the US would not allow the Indian army access to the GPS. The only surprise is that India weren't declared Islamophobic for defending themselves, as happens elsewhere in the world.
The US can turn on SA and degrade positional accuracy whenever they want (by global region). The Russians can't be trusted either. Countries with satellite guided munitions don't want to face the risk of missing their target.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
US has been known to shut down gps over regions during conflicts, last happend to india in 1999. India like eu, china, and russia now want thier own systems so they are not dependent on the USs goodwill and support.
I expect at least GLONASS is also designed to be able to spoof GPS.
Therefore, from the in-house GPS perspective, india is in top 5 countries. I'd say that's quite an achievement.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
I am always surprised to see a country with fabulous universities, and high standard of living, with people who are ignorant to the point of being stupid.
Such claims makes you very one dimensional. Here is some basic economy. Let me explain at a level that may be comprehensible to you.
You have a pickup truck with broken widows, firing only 3 out of 4 cylinders, leaking oil and a missing door. You have limited resources. You have small farm with some fish, sheep & chicken. Your daughter is an excellent cook and can whip up exotic goat-cheese egg frittata (an expensive dish). The neighborhood markets pay you decent money to supply this exotic dish.
Will you:
(1) Sell your chicken farm to immediately buy parts, fix your truck, and hope that it never breaks down again?
(2) Try to keep selling goat-cheese-egg-frittatas, try to fix our truck a little at a time, while building a make-do fence around a farm?
You fail to understand basic economics. You make these choices at your home everyday and at every level. You assess your risk of the worst case scenario and deploy a plan to get the most of the resources at your disposal.
Have you ever met a family that went into debt, trying to put their kids to college, while ignoring replaying leaky window? Ever purchased an expensive new business suit for the annual conference while trying to squeeze extra 5,000 miles from your car tires?
EVERYONE makes these choices, EVERYDAY and at EVERY level.
Such claims makes you very one dimensional. Allow me explain at a level that may be comprehensible to you.
You have a pickup truck with broken widows, firing only 3 out of 4 cylinders, leaking oil and a missing door. You have limited resources. You have small farm with some fish, sheep & chicken. Your daughter is an excellent cook and can whip up exotic goat-cheese egg frittata (an expensive dish). The neighborhood markets pay you decent money to supply this exotic dish.
Will you:
(1) Sell your chicken farm to immediately buy parts, fix your truck, and hope that it never breaks down again?
(2) Try to keep selling goat-cheese-egg-frittatas, try to fix your truck a little at a time, while building a make-do fence around the farm?
You fail to understand basic economics. You make these choices at your home everyday and at every level. You assess your risk of the worst case scenario and deploy a plan to get the most of the resources at your disposal.
Have you (a) Ever met a family that went into debt, trying to put their kids thru college, ignoring leaky home windows? or (b) Ever purchased an expensive new business suit for annual company gala while squeezing extra 5,000 miles from your car tires?
EVERYONE makes these choices, EVERYDAY and at EVERY level.
India has been and is the major client of Russian weapons in the world. At one point, after the Sino-Soviet split, the Russians did not sell any weapons to the Chinese and today they still give preferential access to India. Like the aircraft carrier, the nuclear submarine, T-90 tanks, etc.
India is considered by the Russians a strategic partner and counterweight against other forces in the region namely China and Pakistan. Iraq also used to be a strategic partner at one point. Syria still is.
You jest, but it's a real problem they are solving by creating their own Indian standard time infrastructure.
The entire system is being designed, built, launched, flown, and operated in India, by Indians, with absolutely no foreign dependencies. Having been burned more than a few times in their short existence by various nations who disagreed with their internal decisions, they take their independence very seriously. This is slightly different than the average American who pretty much takes their own independence for granted these days.
John
I think we can safely assume that since Indian engineers are designing and building the chips they'll be using in their own system, it would certainly be possible for them to build their own GPS receivers that aren't subject to the American munitions export restrictions on velocity and altitude. They are doing this strictly for independence from all foreign influences.
John
Yes, many of India's people are impoverished. That condition has existed for thousands of years. Instead, look at the rate at which India has been lifting her people out of poverty. Forty years ago, less than 5% were wealthy, and she had virtually no middle class. Today, about a third of the people are middle class or wealthier. That means that about 400,000,000 people are a whole lot better off than their grandparents.
They won't ever be able to eradicate poverty with the signing of a law, or with a "government cheese" kind of program. Instead, they know it takes a long time, and a strong competitive nation to provide her citizens with opportunities to lift themselves up. India has not been squandering her new independence. It's not perfect, it's not corruption-free, it's not smooth, and it's not fast. But what they have done in the last few decades has been nothing short of amazing.
John
The US doesn't appease Muslim Countries they do exactly what all the US haters want and ignore any internal policies that doesn't threaten US interests. One good example would be the 3 billion dollars the US has paid Egypt to stop working against Israel. It's work. Why should the US care about repression in Bahrain as long as the big naval base is being provided and paid for by the Bahrain government? Why should the US censure Saudi Arabia as long as they manage output to keep the oil prices at an acceptable level? People can't complain about US foreign interventions and undue influence then turn around and criticize the US for not using their authority to aid those being suppressed by their own governments . And the only solution to solve that paradox is for people to recognize it is not the US's burden or responsibility to protect the well being of foreign populations. For every benefit or bribe the US may offer to foreign countries to further US interests there is always someone willing to sellout the well being of their own citizens. Without that caveat the US would have very little power outside of military power ant that doesn't work well due to both foreign and domestic political side effects. The same applies to the other world leading countries such as China and Russia. I will leave Europe out it because they have neither the wealth or resources and their military power is non-existent without US assistance and the US will only provide that if they have something to gain.
There are a number of GPS receiver chip designs which are external to the USA (design and manufacture). The problem is that in order to be signed off as Navstar compatible and/or sold in the USA, they have to comply with Navstar's usage restrictions.
Those requirements will probably be thrown out when Gallileo goes live.
It's worth bearing in mind that the Gallileo consortium had to agree to a number of USA demands on operation, with the threat that if GPS systems weren't able to be shut down in certain areas, the USA would simply start shooting nonconforming satellites out of orbit. I suspect the same thing happens with Glonass, else the Indians could have used that in 1999 (it was functional then) and would probably happen to regional systems if it suited the USA/Russia/China (all 3 countries possess demonstrated anti-satellite missile capabilities.)
Even without explosives, there's enough jamming capability in orbit to shut down a 3rd party's navigation satellites if desired.
GPS systems are proving to be far more valuable to indian civilians than the indian military. One of the greatest advances has been the use of GPS-guided farming systems and using GPS data from ground surveys to identify areas most vulnerable to flooding and move people.
Yes, India has grinding poverty, but it's doing far more than the USA ever did to lift its people out of that - meantime the USA's poverty levels keep increasing.
The interesting phenomenon which is emerging (and has emerged in every single country in the world that wealth has increased) is that the middle classes have fewer children. In a country threatened with overpopulation it seems the best way of alleviating this is to minimise poverty.