GPS Tracking ROI

Well is this the greatest news of the century for users of satellite-based navigation and tracking systems? Or is it another piece of EU (read France, the big sponsor on this) self-aggrandizement?

Yes.

The USAF built, launched and operated NAVSTAR GPS system has been function to serve the civilian world for years now. My tax bill and every other US citizen’s tax bill goes (in part) to fund this system, for the French just as much as the Thais, the Aussies, the Nigerians or anyone else who wants to acquire a receiver and use it.

Most of the world has accepted the free gift with grace and moved on to find ways to use the technology to help both public service and commercial efforts.

‘But then, of course, we have the French. Apparently they are still smarting over their decision to help form the United States and the money and lives they have given in our cause. I don’t hate the French, never will, but I do have to admit they totally amaze and mystify me. What they have instigated with Galileo is a slightly modernized near total copy of the successful and very reliable USAF system. Why?

Well there is truth to the fact that more satellites in orbit have the potential to increase accuracy … once there are receivers readily available to use both systems simultaneously .. look for this to happen some years down the road. Today, you would have a GPS receiver or a Galileo receiver, not both and the accuracy of either system would be approximately equal, in parallel. A much cheaper and more efficient way to increase accuracy and availability for all would be to simply take the billions and billions of Euros being tossed into the endless well of this project and buy an launch more of the latest GPS satellites.

Control is a big part of the equation. Many individuals and nations are understandably reluctant to plight their troth to a system controlled by the US Department of Defense. especially because in spite of many initiatives over the years the entire system is still controlled from one little locked room at Schriever AFB, out on the desolate plains of Colorado, about 9 miles from where these words are being typed. It’s not only unwise, it’s downright stupid and slothful on the part of the USAF to have all the eggs in one basket in this way. One of the reasons I retired when I did was the frustration of working for years on various initiatives within the Air Force to build at least a partial redundancy in the control network and seeing the plans go down the drain time after time because the funds were co opted time and time again for some non-essential project like child care centers or new furnishings for headquarters buildings. But additional satellites could be owned and controlled by a separate entity, eliminating all the stubborn single points of failure in the existing US system and greatly benefiting both the new owners and the present ones.

But France and the other EU nations have welfare problems as well, so I guess that eat least provides at least one socially acceptable reason to build a completely separate system. And I applaud it from a technical sense because there are differences in strengths and weaknesses in two totally different but complementary constellations. Some of these strengths we don’t even know yet until the Galileo system goes operational, just as there are a thousand and one uses for the NAVSTAR birds that were undreamed of even a few years ago.

The issue of the US arbitrarily denying service to specific areas, though, is a bogus reason to waste the resources on re-inventing the wheel. The EU as well as the US will have to be able top deny service for governmental reasons .. the French won’t want terrorists using Galileo to guide bombs any more than the US wants GPS being used in that way. The most common and probably only way to deny unauthorized use over specific areas, while still allowing the other world-wide users access is some type of jamming, controlled by responsible field commanders. There’s no technical challenge in jamming either system, so if a country not in control of the constellation wishes to deny someone use in a specific area, the power of the EU will serve no purpose, one system can be denied essentially as easily as both.

Anyway, an excellent piece of news to ponder and a wonderful way to start off 2006. The old Chinese blessing/curse, “May you live in interesting times” certainly holds true with regard to space-based navigation and vehicle and asset tracking. More as it happens.