FlintyV Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 BBC - The third and fourth spacecraft in Europe's satellite navigation system have gone into orbit. The pair were launched on a Russian Soyuz rocket from French Guiana. It is an important milestone for the multi-billion-euro project to create a European version of the US Global Positioning System (GPS). With four satellites now in orbit - the first and second spacecraft were launched in 2011 - it becomes possible to test Galileo end-to-end. That is because a minimum of four satellites are required in the sky for a smartphone or vehicle to use their signals to calculate a positional fix. BBC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
remixedcat Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 get yo GLONASS on the dance floor! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Lurksalot Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 During the 1st Gulf War (1991) our GPS constellation was not yet complete. The soldiers on the ground referred to the times when less than 4 satellites were visible to the GPS receivers as "sad time". Be sure to thank the developers and builders of the GPS system and the U.S. taxpayer for providing (for frickin' free, mind you) the reference signals behind your in-car nav systems, coordinated cell phone network timing, NTP servers on your LANs and WANs, ship and aircraft navigation, truck tracking systems (so you know where your new iPad is in transit), etc. Only took the rest of the world 20 years to get started catching up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlintyV Posted October 13, 2012 Author Share Posted October 13, 2012 During the 1st Gulf War (1991) our GPS constellation was not yet complete. The soldiers on the ground referred to the times when less than 4 satellites were visible to the GPS receivers as "sad time". Be sure to thank the developers and builders of the GPS system and the U.S. taxpayer for providing (for frickin' free, mind you) the reference signals behind your in-car nav systems, coordinated cell phone network timing, NTP servers on your LANs and WANs, ship and aircraft navigation, truck tracking systems (so you know where your new iPad is in transit), etc. Only took the rest of the world 20 years to get started catching up... As remixedcat said Russia has had some form of GLONASS running since the mid-90's and China have developed their own. The US actually raised issue with Europe developing it's own GPS and lobbied against it and even said if it's used in a terrorist attack they'll shoot the satellites down. Very nice... :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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