May 20 2009
GPS System in Jeopardy?
While listening to the news Tuesday May 19, I heard a story that seemed too ridiculous to be true, then again, that seems to be a daily occurrence.
The topic of the story was that the GPS satellite network has been neglected and the future reliability of the system could be in jeopardy. Apparently the satellites have been so neglected that the system could experience failures as early as next year. These issues could be serious enough that our receivers would be unable to provide accurate positions. Further, the story hypothesized about the serious problems this would pose to those of us trying to find our way on the nations roads. In other words, what would we do without our GPS units in our cars with the voice guided turn by turn instructions?
Thinking about this a bit I wondered why that would be the primary concern. While we all really appreciate the convenience of GPS in our cars, boats, etc. that hardly seems important when compared to our military. Thinking back a little the satellite system was developed and deployed by the military for military purposes. Opening the system to the general public came as an afterthought. Today, it continues to be maintained by the department of defense and if there was valid reason for concern it seems it should be the danger the country might face rather than the inconvenience to private citizens.
Then the shocking part of the story; the failure to maintain the system is being attributed to budget problems, government bureaucracy and neglect. Have we heard that one before?
We will be keeping an eye on this issue.
