+dylanhayes Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 A system called Galileo has been proposed. The intention is to provide a european system, run by civilians, of greater accuracy than the current GPS system. A vote will be taken on building such a system by the end of this month. Proponents point out: Greater accuracy, civilian control and purpose built for civilian navigation. potential for it being self financing by licensing use to navigation system builder. Will provide backup for GPS. Will also provide enployment in european high tech industries. Opponents argue back with: Cost 3.2 billion euros is a lot of money. US is upset about such technology outside of US miltary control. Why build two systems when there is already a good one. Potential for interference with next gen GPS systems. So, as dedicated GPS users where do we stand? Quote Link to comment
+jeremyp Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 If it upsets the Americans it has to be good But seriously, 3.2 billion Euros is not much in comparison with some European projects and is probably worth the expense to get an alternative/compliment to the existing US GPS system. I believe it is designed to be compatible. ------- jeremyp We're going to need a bigger boat! Quote Link to comment
+jeremyp Posted March 16, 2002 Share Posted March 16, 2002 If it upsets the Americans it has to be good But seriously, 3.2 billion Euros is not much in comparison with some European projects and is probably worth the expense to get an alternative/compliment to the existing US GPS system. I believe it is designed to be compatible. ------- jeremyp We're going to need a bigger boat! Quote Link to comment
+Lost in Space Posted March 17, 2002 Share Posted March 17, 2002 Oh great. Another piece of technology to buy. The wife will be pleased....................NOT Quote Link to comment
LazyLeopard Posted March 18, 2002 Share Posted March 18, 2002 Sounds like politics... The Russians have their own military positioning system. No real harm in Europe having its own too, but I suspect some deal will be done... Purrs... LazyLeopard http://www.lazyleopard.org.uk Quote Link to comment
+jeremyp Posted March 18, 2002 Share Posted March 18, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Lazy Leopard: Sounds like politics... The Russians have their own military positioning system. No real harm in Europe having its own too, but I suspect some deal will be done... Purrs... LazyLeopard http://www.lazyleopard.org.uk I think that the fact that both existing systems are military systems is a very strong argument for having a civilian one. It's an interesting point: which navigational aids do not have their origins in a military need? I think the magnetic compass possibly wasn't but just about every innovation since then seems to have been. ------- jeremyp We're going to need a bigger boat! Quote Link to comment
+Nia Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 I want more options in the poll. I don't thik a civilian system is vital, I'm happy with what we have, but i don't think it would be a waste of money either, If it is compatible with current hardware then i vote in favour of the new system. Quote Link to comment
JasonW Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Lazy Leopard: Sounds like politics... The Russians have their own military positioning system. No real harm in Europe having its own too, but I suspect some deal will be done... I think you missed some words off the end out of the bit starting "the Russians" the sentence should end "which is rapidly disintegrating as they don't have the cash to keep the constellation of satellites at full complement" The Russian system is called GLONASS, and they have a website in English here and a quick look at the system status page says they have 10 satellites in orbit, of which 1 is withdrawn, 1 is unusable and 1 has no status - not looking good for anyone trying to get a 4 satellite lock to get their position. Quote Link to comment
JasonW Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Lazy Leopard: Sounds like politics... The Russians have their own military positioning system. No real harm in Europe having its own too, but I suspect some deal will be done... I think you missed some words off the end out of the bit starting "the Russians" the sentence should end "which is rapidly disintegrating as they don't have the cash to keep the constellation of satellites at full complement" The Russian system is called GLONASS, and they have a website in English here and a quick look at the system status page says they have 10 satellites in orbit, of which 1 is withdrawn, 1 is unusable and 1 has no status - not looking good for anyone trying to get a 4 satellite lock to get their position. Quote Link to comment
LazyLeopard Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 Yep, GLONASS does look a bit like it's falling apart... Oh well. I figure that if GPS is sufficiently widely used by civilians then switching it off might have too great an impact for it to be sanctioned even by the hawks in the Pentagon. The sort of deal that might be done (between governments?) could involve funding in exchange for promises of availability. I think Europe having its own separate (and therefore quite possibly incompatible) system is probably not worthwhile, but putting European money into the development of the next generation of satellites would probably would be worthwhile Purrs... LazyLeopard http://www.lazyleopard.org.uk Quote Link to comment
el10t Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Lazy Leopard: .... but putting European money into the development of the next generation of satellites would probably would be worthwhile What about this massively accurate (ie down to a few cm) ground-based thing that someone was telling me about, for use by surveyors etc. Does anyone know anything about it? El10t Quote Link to comment
JasonW Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 quote:Originally posted by el10t: What about this massively accurate (ie down to a few cm) ground-based thing that someone was telling me about, for use by surveyors etc. Does anyone know anything about it? You can read more about one method of gaining centimetre accuracy GPS here and then there is WAAS which is not quite so accurate and still very much in the development stage here Typically the surveyors grade GPS equipment is DGPS - Differential GPS - of which you can read much more here Enjoy your reading! Quote Link to comment
JasonW Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 quote:Originally posted by el10t: What about this massively accurate (ie down to a few cm) ground-based thing that someone was telling me about, for use by surveyors etc. Does anyone know anything about it? You can read more about one method of gaining centimetre accuracy GPS here and then there is WAAS which is not quite so accurate and still very much in the development stage here Typically the surveyors grade GPS equipment is DGPS - Differential GPS - of which you can read much more here Enjoy your reading! Quote Link to comment
+jeremyp Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 The Ordnance Survey used to have a ground based GPS system of their own. It seems to have been switched over to a ground based system getting position information from the US military system. It's all very complicated and I can't pretend I understood it at first reading, but you need a survey quality dual frequency GPS receiver to use it (whatever one of those is). http://www.gps.gov.uk ------- jeremyp We're going to need a bigger boat! Quote Link to comment
LazyLeopard Posted March 20, 2002 Share Posted March 20, 2002 quote:dual frequency GPS receiver to use it (whatever one of those is)Expensive, I expect. Purrs... LazyLeopard http://www.lazyleopard.org.uk Quote Link to comment
LazyLeopard Posted March 20, 2002 Share Posted March 20, 2002 quote:dual frequency GPS receiver to use it (whatever one of those is)Expensive, I expect. Purrs... LazyLeopard http://www.lazyleopard.org.uk Quote Link to comment
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