GPS Satellite Glitches Fuel Concern on Next Generation

GPS Satellite Glitches Fuel Concern on Next Generation

online.wsj.com

Technical problems are degrading the accuracy of signals from the last GPS satellite launched by the Pentagon, sparking concerns among U.S. military and aerospace industry officials that the next generation of the widely used satellites could face similar troubles.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Is it possible that a pole shift might be happening to cause these problems? I don't mean the north pole moving 180degrees, but a minimal shift would cause the Lat/long lines to be off would it not? There seem to be quite a few things that could be causing this, but nobody is talking. Am I missing something?

online.wsj.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

There is a magnetic anomaly off the eastern coast of South America where, essentially, the Ionosphere/magnetosphere is EXTREMELY weak and, could even be comparable to a hole.

Each time Hubble goes through this zone they have to SHUT IT DOWN, because other wise it would fry the circuitry.

Luckily, most of our satellites are pretty low in orbit, except the geostationary ones, which, obviously, arehigher up.

I have to link to 'galaxy 23' everyday at work to receive delivery of a Television program. It is geostationary, so Its always at a fixed point in the sky, unlike the GPS birds which move across the sky, so you would think I would experience problems before GPS ones, so the problem might not be inter-related to the earths magnetic shielding, but who knows?!

reply to post by network dude


The GPS systems will b eobsolete becasue teh earth is going through polar wabbles right now. in 2012 it will b ea reversal so teh gps will have no idea what it is lokking at or where its looking at making them virtualy usless.

Originally posted by PINDARFOX12
reply to post by network dude

 

The GPS systems will b eobsolete becasue teh earth is going through polar wabbles right now. in 2012 it will b ea reversal so teh gps will have no idea what it is lokking at or where its looking at making them virtualy usless.

PLEASE for the love of pete read how GPS works. Raw GPS data is LAT/LONG strings and altitude data, time, speed. Position is determined through triangulation. EVEN IF the whole surface of the earth turned around IT WOULD STILL WORK. Its just the MAPS that would be wrong since the surface of the earth changed. You could still "navigate" per-se but you would be back in the early years of exploration - not knowing what you will find.

GPS satellites don't have little Tom-Tom maps onboard and spit out street addresses.

back in ought one (2001, haha) I was working as a land surveyor. If we couldnt find the boundary marker, or if we were laying lines for rail expansion or any other big ticket job, we would use three ground based GPS units set over a known point, usually like an abutment on a bridge or something. the GPS units would not give correct data unless they were able to lock into 5 different satellites, and then we would have to leave it running for about an hour as it checked and re checked the receivers position on planet earth through the use of trigonometry just so it would tell us, 'yes, you are where you think you are,'

The tech today (8 years later) is decidedly more advanced, but it still relies on the same underlying principles.

is there any way to determine a pole shift? other than to see if your GPS still says the right address? Old days when I was in the USAF, we used magnetic north, ground stations, Doppler stations, Radio signals. When I was about to get out, they were just starting to use GPS as a secondary. I don't have the skills to determine if this is the case but someone here does. It may be nothing, but it may not.

reply to post by network dude


The only thing i can think of is gluing a compass somewhere and observing it over time. Not even sure if that would be sufficient, but hopefully someone else will give us a better idea.

reply to post by ACEMANN


Actually it depends on how the clocks are working. The the clocks are adjusted for speed distortion, then yes they will work, but if there is something going on with those clocks due to some anomaly, then the GPS system will not work because the math being incorrect due to the wrong time being given on one of the satellites. Even Atomic clocks need to be updated/synchronized regularly if they travel in space. Thank Einstein for that whole E=mc2 thing.

Something tells me that any GPS failure will be due to clock malfunction.

reply to post by network dude


You would have to know where magnetic north is in relation to the actual north pole to determine that with a compass. Otherwise you could use the stars at night to make the determination. Polaris has always been pretty close to North so if you see Polaris in the East, then you would know we certainly have a problem. Old tricks are always the best tricks

one of the reasons I am curious about a pole shift is the "Global Warming" scenario. I don't believe that we are to blame for a sudden rise in temperatures. I do believe we could do a better job with industry and emissions. There are weather phenomenons going on everywhere, but some are getting hotter and some are getting colder. Some seasons are lasting longer, and some are getting shorter. The North polar Ice caps are melting and the South polar ice caps are growing. Again, I am not a scientist, but does this seem at all plausible?

reply to post by xman_in_blackx


I forgot about the sextant. I wish I knew how to use it. At least there is a definitive way to prove it. I guess I was just having a blonde moment.

reply to post by xman_in_blackx


The only thing about a Polaris (the north star) shift is this; To physically alter the gravity fed rotational axis of the earth would take something like Saturn passing within a couple thousand miles of us, and if that happened, we would assimilate into its rings from the sheer physics of it. that is just about the only thing i can think of that would cause a "shift" in response to the the apparent position of stars as viewed from earth.

If i understand my Mayan calendars correctly, the sun shall soon be rising over the galactic center, after that we will move into the age of Aquarius. For as long we have been sailing ships, (4000+/- years) we have seen the north star in roughly the same place, but in a few thousand years, it will appear to have shifted as our 'local group' swings around the milky way on the 250,000,000+/- year cycle.



[edit on 17-6-2009 by drsmooth23]

Originally posted by PINDARFOX12
The GPS systems will b eobsolete becasue teh earth is going through polar wabbles right now. in 2012 it will b ea reversal so teh gps will have no idea what it is lokking at or where its looking at making them virtualy usless.

That shows a pretty poor understanding of the way the GPS system works if you ask me.

The satellites do not 'look' at anything - basically they are just super accurate clocks (in fact each satellite has 3 atomic clocks so that it can compare of each other)... The satellites are launched and then they positioned them selves out in the 'constellation'... That is to say they all took up their geostationary orbits - once there they only have to make fine adjustments once in a while to stay in position.

All the sats do is ping whatever time they are reading and an ID code... thats it!.... All the locating is done on earth. within the little device you have in your car, or mobile phone or whatever... If the poles do flip - well it won't bother the satalites that much, you just have to rewrite the software in the GPS recievers

Originally posted by Now_Then
That is to say they all took up their geostationary orbits - once there they only have to make fine adjustments once in a while to stay in position.

All the sats do is ping whatever time they are reading and an ID code... thats it!.... All the locating is done on earth. within the little device you have in your car, or mobile phone or whatever... If the poles do flip - well it won't bother the satalites that much, you just have to rewrite the software in the GPS recievers

That's odd. It was my understanding that GPS birds were not geostationary. Perhaps I was absent that day.

If we do have a pole shift, hopefully there would be someone left to rewrite that GPS EPROM. The GPS survivability would depend of the cause of the pole shift.

Originally posted by network dude
is there any way to determine a pole shift? other than to see if your GPS still says the right address? Old days when I was in the USAF, we used magnetic north, ground stations, Doppler stations, Radio signals. When I was about to get out, they were just starting to use GPS as a secondary. I don't have the skills to determine if this is the case but someone here does. It may be nothing, but it may not.

after thinking about it and Watching an old VHS tape tonight I was wondering about the possibility of such a flip being viewable in such an analog medium...

[edit on 23-6-2009 by drsmooth23]