GPS system failure as early as next year

[Joliet 0]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,520636,00.html

[KTMrad 517]

Just another reason I don't rely on GPS, I like maps and books.

[Crawdaddy 96]

The system won't go down......this is just PR to get the public ready for more military investment/spending.....at least that's my guess

[Kevin 0]

The military at any time can shut down your access to the GPS system. So you better always have maps.

[PastaPilot 17]

The system won't go down......this is just PR to get the public ready for more military investment/spending.....at least that's my guess

+1

Just tack it on to the Obama economic recovery bill.

With all the money the Air Farce wasted on the F22 program they could've gotten their sattelites built, many times over.

[sandiegoland 0]

Alarmist headline...

"...the overall GPS constellation will fall below the number of satellites required to provide the level of GPS service that the U.S. government commits to..."

It takes at least 4 satellites to get a location lock that includes a rough elevation figure. That is minimal for navigation and will be substandard for where coverage is hindered (canyons, forests), but it meets the purpose of emergency ops like SPOT or tracking-accounts would need. The first to suffer would be on the fly navigation (you need 15M or better where streets are close together like in neighborhoods).

Loose a few satellites and it will be like the old days when the antennas had less gain or before the military decrypted some of the data needed for pinpointing.

Regarding system failure - I wouldn't wait for Sat fail before I got a map. 10,000 GPS's will fail on Terra Firma before that happens...