Sat navs about to go on the blink apparently.
Marvellous news
www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/may/19/gps-clos...n
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It's an old story really. This one from 2005 says pretty much the same thing.
www.computing.co.uk/itweek/news/2142864/gps-users-...s
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More worrying is that bombs/missiles could be mis-directed on my house !
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No shortage of money to send cameras billions of miles to take happy snaps of Mars or send up endless Spy satellites to watch over other countries......
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Of course the scientists only send cameras to Mars for the fun of it, don't they... nothing useful ever comes from it...
Worth bearing in mind, perhaps, that without the space programme we wouldn't even have GPS and the benefits its given us, along with many other inventions...
Edited by b308 on 19/05/2009 at 16:50
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"Worth bearing in mind, perhaps, that without the space programme we wouldn't even have GPS and the benefits its given us, along with many other inventions... "
Having just "Googled", inventions via the space programme, several sites list up to just 19 things that have benefited us. Thats over 50 years and countless billions of dollars. I agree with Mr. X, the space programme is a total waste of time and money, when the vast majority of gadgets have been invented well outside the space programme and not because of it.
Earth orbit technology is a bonus, but on the back of the military and cold war. Visiting Mars or Jupiter is throwing money down the drain. Pretty pictures though :-)!
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Visiting Mars or Jupiter is throwing money down the drain.
I suppose only time will tell if you are right... but I can't help feeling that if our ancestors several hundred years ago had felt that way we'd have never discovered America, or Australasia... or found places where people like Darwin could unravel the secrets of nature... Yes, its costly, just as those voyages of discovery were, but I think that I'm one of those who actually think that its worth it... as long as its used for the good of mankind... and that, I suspect, is the key question...
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Most of the "discovery" voyages were to strip other lands of riches and commodities. It was the items that were brought back that paid for the voyages in the first place. What have they brought back from space, apart from rocks and soil. Nothing worth covering the expenditure.
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Carbon fibre was a result of the space program.
On my life through fishing, that has made a tremendous change, also F1.
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Carbon fibre was invented by researchers in English laboratories. It was perfected towards the end of the 1940s, but only used in research laboratories and a bit in industry. In the 60s, the Japanese took up the European work and, at the same time, took it to the industrial stage.
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my source was from a fishing manufactures magazine, when carbon fibre poles came on the scene. It was claimed the material used was a result of the space program.
Their are quite a few different grades of carbon fibre.
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The cynic in me says that this is an EU-created story to feather their pillows (us) over the expense of the ESA Galileo programme.
It's marvellous timing. I bet all my money that nobody's satnav goes on the blink, or, if they do, it's as a result of local interference.
The EU NEEDS its people to believe that the US satellite technology is at capacity.
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The EU NEEDS its people to believe that the US satellite technology is at capacity.
That's right. They want to push their enormously expensive Galileo system, which they'll use to implement pay as you drive road charging (and vehicle tracking) across the EU.
Knowing what I do of Americans I don't think they'll just sit there while GPS falls apart!
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GPS is critical to America's military - they'll chop free health care before they let that fail.
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just remember without the the space programmes you wouldnt have pens that write upside down
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Maybe, but we'd still have pencils.
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>>"Worth bearing in mind, perhaps, that without the space programme we wouldn't
>>even have GPS and the benefits its given us, along with many other inventions... "
Perhaps somebody who really understands economics can explain the problem (if there is one) with employing a large number of intelligent people on respectable salaries to achieve something of which a Nation can be proud?
It's got to be better than creating taxes and spurious work to keep people off the dole, as there isn't a cat in hells chance of this group producing anything remotely useful - whether it be knowledge or boys' toys.
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Thats an urban myth BB
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So is the Russians using pencils story. It's to do with the graphite powder that would be released by using a pencil in zero-G.
But still funny
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GPS is critical to America's military - they'll chop free health care before they let that fail.
Which they might. There are always spares in orbit and it will cope with a few failures. They also have some spares that just need launching. A bit of a non-story.
Unless someone adds something interesting then this will be moved to the sat nav thread.
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>> GPS is critical to America's military....
Indeed it is, but it isn't the same system used by commercial navigation devices.
Despite the world-wide availability of the GPS, it is still 100% controlled by Uncle Sam - a factor which still causes concern for many countries. Basing a country's infrastructure on a foreign-controlled system does seem a bit of a gamble. Things may be okay now, but who knows what US foreign policy will be like in 50 years' time. The signals from the space segment satellites can be readily 'distorted' to give large inaccuracies over certain sections of the Earth's surface - not what you want if you've embedded GPS into large parts of your country's services...
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>> GPS is critical to America's military.... Indeed it is, but it isn't the same system used by commercial navigation devices.
But the satellites are the same ones. We just use the non-encrypted signals which are less accurate. The military use the encrypted channels. But the same satellites are used. The number of satellites is from 24-32 with the number varying because of spares.
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Despite the world-wide availability of the GPS it is still 100% controlled by Uncle Sam - a factor which still causes concern for many countries. Basing a country's infrastructure on a foreign-controlled system does seem a bit of a gamble.
Well... seems our armed forces rely on a private company!
I saw an article the other day, that said many of the vehicles used by our armed forces are rented from a private company ( tinyurl.com/p2zjxo ) these vehicles include cars, and patrol ships..... I hate to think what could happen if the company was taken over by an enemy??
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GPS is critical to America's military - they'll chop free health care before they let that fail.
I can agree with this in a throwaway sort of a way. But forgive me:
The US allows anyone and everyone to use their US maintained technology, ostensibly free of charge. In any case, satellites don't really get overloaded; they transmit signals which are picked up by satnav units. If your satnav isn't working, the satellite isn't malfunctioning; it's your satnav which calculates your position based on a largely passive and unsophisticated satellite system with which there's not an awful lot to go wrong.
So I wonder how this story had legs when it's simply a case of satellites reaching their expiry. Entirely expected and probably just a bit of publicity for the imminent launching of replacement satellites I would guess.
The EU is officially saying that the reason Galileo is a jolly bon idee, apart from the fact that hundreds of billions have already been spent on it, is that the US GPS system is "not guaranteed". So it's a fait accompli. Of course it's not guaranteed, and I suppose it's entirely unshocking to learn that the EU sought out such a guarantee, but you only need to learn a little about it to realise just how "useful" it is to American interests worldwide to tinker with, at least in the way that the vindictive EU bullies would love everyone to believe. Just think how many countries' ARMIES use GPS, thanks to the US. It's not going anywhere.
As for chopping free healthcare, yep, and they probably should, just like any other country would faced with such a Darwinian dilemma. Self preservation. There's a man with a knife running towards you but, alas, you have a sneeze coming; do you blow stylishly into your medicated hanky BEFORE or after you sprint the other way?
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Thankfully, faced with thousands of drivers being unable to function, someone has come to the rescue.
tinyurl.com/qyg7gm
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GPS is critical to America's military - they'll chop free health care before they let that fail.
What free health care?
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What BO promised in his Presidential campaign.
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