Russian GPS Alternative Near Completion

Russia has successfully launched another round of GLONASS satellites bringing the grand total to 18 of the navigational units online. "The GPS competitor -- first begun in the Soviet era and only recently revived after years of post-collapse neglect -- is now theoretically capable of providing coverage to the entire Russian territory, with First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov claiming that the first compatible consumer devices will be available in the middle of next year. By 2010 Russia plans to open the system up to outside nations as well, contributing to an eventual three- or even four-system global market"

So...

[milsoRgen]

...we're going to have more choice in satellite positioning systems then we do with satellite radio?

2nd srcing

[rice_burners_suck]

This is as important as so-called "second sourcing", which promises that if one system goes down, others will still be available.

Why alternatives?

[loonicks]

One of the most compelling reasons for deploying alternatives is that the US controls Navstar GPS. The US government can introduce random errors into the CA (civilian) codes, decreasing the accuracy of GPS receivers. This is called selective availability. US Military receivers can, of course, get the "correct" signal by being loaded with crypto keys to access P(Y) codes. Additionally, CA code (and even P-code), is susceptible to spoofing by the enemy. Obviously, without the right keys, GPS is hardly acceptable as a positioning system for non-US militaries.

2mm, China's COMPASS and more on GLONASS

[Lord Satri]

I suppose if every one of these systems provides a precise enough location, for most purposes it won't matter if they all conflict with one another by a meter or so.

For your curiosity, one can use GPS signal to get a precision of 2mm. No this isn't an error or bullshit (and it is not DGPS [wikipedia.org]), it's "phase resolution". In short, you use the GPS signal's phase from multiple GPS satellites to get a 2mm spatial resolution. Whether Selective Availability is on or not doesn't matter, but you can do this only in post-processing mode however, not real-time (afaik). A friend was doing his PhD on this. There are a few great applications, such as doing GPS phase-resolution for bridges, thus knowing by how much they move due to traffic, temperature, lateral wind, etc. The funny thing is we don't even know the position of the satellite at such a precision, but it does not matter, we're using the phase of multiple satellites here, not the content of the signal. (I'm not a professional of GPS phase resolution myself, anyone with more knowledge is welcomed to correct me, I'll appreciate :-)

A little more related to GLONASS, there's COMPASS, the global positioning system of China. It's first satellite was successfully launched last February [computing.co.uk].

Here I provided (shameless but informative plug) news on Europe's Galileo, which somehow solved their important funding problems [slashgeo.org]. As for GLONASS, Putin himself clearly stated he wants GLONASS back to full speed [blogspot.com].

Anyone avid of GPS-related news is welcomed here [slashgeo.org] (this is the GPS topic on Slashgeo, yeah, a plug, but hey, it's right on topic no? And there's no ads whatsoever ;-). Happy holiday time.

Justifying defense spending

[Bearpaw]

Sounds like the world's getting ready to redraw some political boundaries and justify some defense spending.

Justifying defense spending is easy. Just line up your favorite talking heads on TV and have them talk about how the people who look different and talk weird really really hate freedom and want to kill all right-thinking peace-loving citizens. Have the talking heads subtly or not-so-subtly question the courage and patriotism of anybody who isn't pissing their pants over the supposedly imminent threat.

Then arrange to borrow the funding for the defense spending. This way, you can put off paying the bills until it's somebody else's problem. With any luck, your political opponent will be in office then, and you can criticize them for the economy that you screwed up. Bonus points if they try to raise taxes to pay off the debts you incurred -- or even just try to end the huge tax cuts you gave to your filthy-rich buddies. (Many of whom just happened to profit enormously from defense contracts and/or own the media corporations who practiced "balanced" journalism by not questioning your lies.)

Wheee! It's a fun game that everyone enjoys ... well, everyone you care about. The millions of poor dead bastards and their families, not so much. But no sweat -- with some careful handling, some of those grieving families can be the supposed threat for the next time your side is in office.

Re:I strongly doubt the quality and reliability

[mi]

Technically impressive, sure, but Russian space tech from that era, in somewhat upgraded form, is still flying; American space tech from that era exists only as rusting static displays.

"In somewhat upgraded form" our spacecraft are also still flying. In fact, it is such a wonderful all-encompassing expression — "in somewhat upgraded form" — that, pretty much, everything qualifies... But thank you for granting the "technically impressive" bit. One could deduce from that, that US has beaten the Soviets' butt back then at least on something.

And the Soviets knew that, BTW — they would not even deny it. Back when the whole world was glued to their TV-screens watching in awe as the Americans were walking on the Moon, the Soviet TV-viewers were shown some old footage of ballet... This is something your father would not be able to tell you.

You also conveniently skipped our Mars explorers — do ask your father, how those are inferior to a Russian tractor or something and get back to me...

Straw man. The fact that they haven't built a worldwide GPS equivalent doesn't mean they're not going to do so

You may need a refresher, on what "straw man" means. You should also look up, what "kicking butt" means too — Russian GLONASS remains vaporware, and yet you refuse to submit, that even in the field of GPS (ubiquitously available for years) America is ahead of the Soviets/Russians.

adding more satellites will provide more coverage. It's really that simple.

Right. And when you grow up, you'll really-really kick that guy's ass. But today he is kicking yours...

Re:I strongly doubt the quality and reliability

[glwtta]

Yeah, the Soviet Union and Russia were notorious for manufacturing crap military equipment.

Wait a minute...