GPS system 'close to breakdown'

reply to post by tamusan



What I want to see is a reasonable source of information that says regular GPS receivers have a transmitter in them which is capable of transmitting an ID an location back to the constellation.

Originally posted by concerned190
I don't understand. If the GPS stytem could fail as early as next year then why are the census people marking coordinates on every front door in America RIGHT NOW for the 2010 Census?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

That's a good question. i also made a similar question due to the fact that Obama now wants to track how many miles people are driving so he can tax people for driving, and if the entire GPS system could start failing next year, how is it that they are going to be able to track how many miles people are driving?

Something is definetely affot.

Originally posted by searching4truth
I really don't think that GPS is required for anything, we got along just fine without it for thousands of years. Personally, I would enjoy if it did crash as my primary concern is GPS being used to follow people.

You have got to be kidding me right? It is integrated to the core of society, should it be, well, possibly not, but it is so major that literally Society takes a dive if it goes out. Everything from taxi cabs to ambulances to airplanes use it, and well, alot of the services you receive are tied to it right down to mail and mail delivery.

As consumers we sucked up the services, yourself included by your purchases and demand for services which use these systems, and now we have to pay for it. The FREE ride is over.

However do not worry. Russia and China are building more advanced system as we speak.

PS ATS Is failing technically on posts, browser problems, putting other text in my post. Everyone should check their posts.



[edit on 19-5-2009 by SoulOrb]

Looks like Fox is covering this story now.

Here's the Source

The report says the Air Force has struggled to build successful GPS satellites within cost and on schedule.

Really? We struggle with cost and making them on time?

Originally posted by tamusan
reply to post by tamusan

 

I take that back. Not all GPS can be tracked. Hand helds like the TomTom can only receive. Units like the NAV system in my Mercedes 450 do send back a signal.

The NAV system in your car does not send a signal back to the GPS constellation. It is not capable of this because the constellation is not capable of receiving such a signal. The system sends (via cell phone) data to the company that provides your roadside assistance. This company is completely unrelated to the GPS network.

If you buy a cell phone that includes a GPS receiver or a car that has a GPS with a cell phone attached to it (such as the NAV system in your car) then you are at risk of being tracked because the cell phone provides a means of communicating the location data to a third party. Otherwise the GPS network has no idea of your GPS receivers location. There is no components in place to do this. The system that GPS uses to provide location information to a receiver is not magic. It is well understood and it does not need to know the receivers location in order to function. Open up any GPS receiver and you will see that there is no circuits capable of transmitting back to the constellation.

Here's a "quick" read about GPS IIIA satellites that were mentioned in that Fox article.

It's badass in the most expensive way! Source

Originally posted by dainoyfb

I'm sorry, I'm completely lost by your response. It seems you just tried to deflect my statement by expanding yours to suddenly include other spy satellite systems not related to or previously mentioned in this thread.

Since you made your statement general, meaning, you didn't awnser them in response to anyone in particular, I would think it would mean your stament was made to people who made comments about the capabilities of the GPS system.

Originally posted by dainoyfb
Someone also mentioned that if satellites went down that the military would hoard the remaining satellites for themselves. This also is not possible and once again I "babbled" to correct this. If you can find a reliable source to counter these technical points with me I am happy to listen. Other wise I'll rely on my 19 or so years of working on electronics involving GPS as my guide.

There have been more than enough articles around here about the black budget spy satellite system which are not available to the public, and which the government is not going to allow to break because they will lose a lot of control.

I was one of the people stating that the military does have black budget systems for themselves, and which civilians, nor even the police, nor most of the regular military can control.

The government already has back up plans for when the regular GPS satellites start failing, and they won't be available for everybody like the regular GPS is now.



[edit on 19-5-2009 by ElectricUniverse]

reply to post by SoulOrb


Ok, so enlighten me, if the whole darn thing crashed tomorrow, what can I do today that I can't tomorrow, that is necessary to maintain life? Or, not even that extreme, to maintain a "modern" standard of living.

reply to post by searching4truth


try being on a rescue rib in a force 6 and read a chart and navgate. gps helps save many lives everyday FACT!!

I've never used one, prefer old fashioned maps.

I chuckle when I see people driving with their little screens burning bright telling them to go this way and that.

It will be even more funny watching them when the system stops... will be mayhem

I have the following thoughts

1. The USAF want more money. It will be easier for them to get money to maintain GPS satellites then it would be for other things that may not seem essential.

2. Perhaps if things got bad and people starting rebelling then if GPS was switched off to the public then it would cause problems. How many people in the general population can read a map / use a compass these days?

3. How many foreign / enemy governments use the civilian GPS system?

Good riddance.

I think we are a lot safer without it and the potential for corruption and misdeeds are too great with it.

There are a lot better ways to spend the money that we don't have.

Originally posted by searching4truth
I really don't think that GPS is required for anything, we got along just fine without it for thousands of years. Personally, I would enjoy if it did crash as my primary concern is GPS being used to follow people. If one does rely heavily upon it, perhaps they may want to keep a road map in their glove box

. If they government did fail to ensure the system works properly I would question them, as GPS seems to be far more useful for them, ie military operations, than it is for me to navigate around the city.

There is another possibility... That they are telling us this to assuage fears, and secretly are gearing up to watch us all the more closely. Don't know if that's true, but it is a possibility.

reply to post by Amaterasu


Could be......

It is uncertain whether the Air Force will be able to acquire new satellites in time to maintain current GPS service without interruption," said the report, presented to Congress. "If not, some military operations and some civilian users could be adversely affected."

But if that's the case I'm sure it would be pretty obvious when the air force still has use of it, but not the civilian population.

maybe this is a way to make gps services unavailable to the general public while the military could continue to use them. who is to know if the satellites are functional? they could just change broadcast frequency to those used only by military. Although I think most of us can manage fine with old-fashioned maps i find it hard to believe the military wouldn't need gps, unless they have some parallel alternative.

Hmm, maybe their prepping us?

Originally posted by searching4truth
reply to post by Amaterasu

 

Could be......

But if that's the case I'm sure it would be pretty obvious when the air force still has use of it, but not the civilian population.

Ah, but do you think it will be public that it is in use? Or do you think it will sink into Black Ops?

I mean... If it is an effort to wrest it from us and use it to surveil us, they surely aren't going to let us know about it.

Despite the numerous attempts by OP to turn this into another Obama Bashfest, I'll
chirp in, on topic.

GPS is a luxury for civilians. The military had it for years prior to letting the civilian populace "borrow" its usage. I suspect it will be kept functional for military as well as general aviation and emergency usage at the very least.

As an avid boater I use it as a "convenience" as I can be lazy. But I'd never give up my basic navigation skills. (Compass / charts / dead reckoning) I really want to learn celestial / sextant.

In addition to GPS there is LORAN (terrestrial based) and we still have RADAR.

GPS is a navigational aid, nothing more. Part of the "dumbing down" of the populace due to laziness rather some machiavellian conspiracy.

BTW, it is my understanding that the systems employed by military are more highly accurate than that of citizens which are only close to within tens to hundreds of feet.
[EDIT TO ADD 5TH ELEMENT CLARIFIES MY MISCONCEPTION BELOW, SORRY. I DIDN'T REALIZE ACCURACY IS NOW SAME.]

Thanks for letting me ping the thread.

Regards...KK


[edit on 19-5-2009 by kinda kurious]

reply to post by dainoyfb


Exactly.

The only party who sends signal back to the satellites (encrypted and on unknown frequencies) is the US Air Force.

At the moment there is no SA (selective availability A.K.A. intentional error for civilian population) in operation, which was turned off in 2000, so everybody (military and civilians) have the same precision available, which, of course, depends only on quality of the receiving unit

Maybe the military is tired of getting in trouble every time they bomb the wrong house, so they're coming up with this story so they can say, "Well, we're sorry we carpet bombed Pakistan. The smart bombs were out of order."

But, seriously though... we have a year. At least. That's a worse-case scenario. The government is incompetent but if there's one thing the military won't do it's let their ability to blow things up be compromised by a few satellites getting old.

In all reality, this is all probably just an excuse to give the military industrial complex a new contract to build replacement satellites.