China GPS rival to U.S. goes operational

China GPS rival to U.S. goes operational

www.cbsnews.com

(CBS/AP)

BEIJING - A Chinese rival to the U.S. global positioning system network has started providing services in China and the surrounding area.

The director of China's satellite navigation system office, Ran Chengqi, told reporters Tuesday that the Beidou navigation system is offering services including positioning, navigation routes and time.

Ran did not specify who the target users are, but he said Beidou would be available to Chinese and foreign companies for research and development.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.bbc.co.uk
online.wsj.com
www.ibtimes.com
gizmodo.com

From the BBC website

Beidou - which translates as the Big Dipper - promises to offer civilian users positioning information correct to the nearest 10 metres, measure speeds within 0.2 metres per second, and provide clock synchronisation signals accurate to 0.02 millionths of a second.

The Chinese military will be able to obtain more accurate data.

A 2004 study by Geoffrey Forden, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, suggested that Beidou could be used to target cruise missiles against Taiwan if a war broke out over the territory. Having its own system would protect China against the risk that the US could turn GPS off.

Source BBC



Alternative systems

Beyond GPS, Russia operates the Glonass network. It recently launched a series of satellites to cover gaps in its system and reported earlier this month that it once again covered 100% of the Earth's surface.

The EU is also developing its own system - Galileo. The first of its operational satellites entered orbit in October. The European Space Agency said the network should be completed in 2019.

Meanwhile, defence developer Lockheed Martin is working to upgrade the US's system to GPS III.

So yet again China has taken an American invention , copied it and improved on it massively. But this has slightly more sinister intentions than just profit. Now China has a super accurate positioning system for their missiles should they ever go to war with the US.

www.cbsnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

GPS stops working the minute there is a war. Jamming it is easy, done by Iraq 9 years ago. None of these systems would be good for aiming missiles.

reply to post by PhoenixOD


Just like americans took lots of german inventions and worked over them to achieve better results...

Nothing wrong.

Originally posted by FraternitasSaturni
reply to post by PhoenixOD

 

Just like americans took lots of german inventions and worked over them to achieve better results...

Nothing wrong.

Exaclty. The only reason the US is leading in technology at the moment is because of the Nazis.

reply to post by FraternitasSaturni


they also took alot of german inventors!!

.... GPS? You know how easy this technology is to make?

Let them make / compete with whatever they want. It is very basic technology.

seems a waste of time and money to me, considering the is a perfectly good global system already in place...

But China has to do their own thing, like their space station. Why don't they involve themselves with the ISS program?

If man truly wants to explore space, it needs to be as one.

reply to post by Chadwickus


I think the idea is to have system thats separate from the US system so the US cant switch off access to the GPS if they disagree with how China is using it.

Chinese big brother people....

We have had big brother in the states
for a while. The Chinese government envies
how well the states can control and watch the citizens..

Big boys now... Mooooving on uuuup..

Originally posted by PhoenixOD
So yet again China has taken an American invention , copied it and improved on it massively. But this has slightly more sinister intentions than just profit. Now China has a super accurate positioning system for their missiles should they ever go to war with the US.

What a load of utter crap and nonsense.

China took a US invention and copied it?
So you are suggesting China stole GPS technology and copied it to make it's own?
And you come to this conclusion because China has just turned on it's own satellite based positioning system?

Why aren't you accusing Russia or the European Union of copying a US invention?


We all know about China and their reverse engineering and copying of western products.
But in this case, you accusations are just bloody ridiculous [snip]

Originally posted by PhoenixOD
So yet again China has taken an American invention , copied it and improved on it massively

Just why do you think that they have "improved it massively"?

Originally posted by spoor

Originally posted by PhoenixOD
So yet again China has taken an American invention , copied it and improved on it massively

Just why do you think that they have "improved it massively"?

Because its way more accurate the the US system.

This is from the Gizmodo article entitled "China Has Its Own GPS Now—And It’s Better Than Yours" :

Civilian transports would be able to know where they are within a range of 10 meters. They would also be able to record speed with a 0.2 metres-per-second error margin and synchronize their clocks with an accuracy of 0.02 millionths of a second. This is way better than the United States' GPS system, which has an accuracy of 20 meters (66 ft). Garmin claims that their receivers are accurate to within 15 meters on average, which is worse than the accuracy claimed by the Chinese.

Like GPS, however, Beidou has two modes: civilian and military. The Chinese military will have even more accuracy. They haven't disclosed by how much.

Source

Originally posted by PhoenixOD

Originally posted by spoor

Originally posted by PhoenixOD
So yet again China has taken an American invention , copied it and improved on it massively

Just why do you think that they have "improved it massively"?

Because its way more accurate the the US system.

Not really
www.romdas.com...

LOL any article which uses verbiage such as "This is way better " i am not going to take seriously. Its sounds like an 8th grader wrote it.

If they said something like "is far superior due to....." or "this technology has surpassed....." or you get the picture? But to say: "its way better than" just isnt gonna cut it for me. Im not an ATS 14 year old.