Bush to consider shutting down GPS in extreme emergency

Often, but not necessarily... there are situations where line
of site is impossible that are overcome by professional GPS based
survey instruments.

 

Can you show that removal of those signals after the attack has started,
would change its outcome, if at all?

 

I hate to tell you this, Nieveler, but DGPS reference stations only
provide *corrections* to GPS.... The don't substitute for GPS signal.
You'll need something like LORAN for that.

 

We pay's every year. Government goods and services have never been free.

 

The people own the system and the decisions as to it use and stewardship
are equally shared by DOT and DOD and as funding is provided for by the
US Congress. Cooperative effort.

 

Timekeeping was certainly on of the reasons GPS was built. Don't be
so naive Nieveler--Read the literature.

 

Thanks for making that point!

 

I pay, in part, for part the internet backbone every year.

 

To minimize the economic burden on society--don't take infrastructure
down.

 

They did.

Which is, of course, precisely why Galileo is being built.

 

I don't know the funding regulations in the US, but I doubt that it is as
generous to small airports as you suggest.
If you don't have the minimum lighting in place, then your precision approach
will have a DH so high as to be no better than a non-prec. approach.

Cheers,
Alan.

 

The Internet backbone in the US is government-owned? Thank god I live
in Europe - DECIX is funded by the ISPs connected to it, which means
that politicians can argue all they like, they don't get near it


Juergen Nieveler

 

No. GPS would still be available to Pentagon "customers" - it just
would be gone for the freeloaders.

But the Pentagon isn't answerable to civilians - it's only answerable
to the President, who in turn would have to answer to Congress and
Senate. But if HE gives the order, using his privileges as President
(stating "Clear and Present danger", or suchlike), it would be
difficult at best for Congress to argue against that.


Juergen Nieveler

 

We actually agree on something! Will wonders never cease?

If you ask them, however, they'll tell you that its also not their job
to worry if the FedEx parcel tracking system keeps working.

Juergen Nieveler

 

Can you show that it would be bad to at least try it?


Juergen Nieveler
--
When God was creating the human race, he lined up all the males on one
side and all the females opposite. Then he asked, "Which of your species
would like to urinate standing up?" Well, the males went crazy, shouting
that they wanted to pee standing up. "Fine", says God, "Women get multiple
orgasms."

 

Yes, but you still have to know the exact location of the DGPS station
so that it can calculate the corrections, don't you? Just putting it
somewhere and switching it on won't help.


Juergen Nieveler

 

Can't help you there, my crystal ball is broken. Try sending boxes of
pretzels to the White House, it almost worked a few years ago...


Juergen Nieveler

 

It does what it gets told by the Secretary of Defense, who is only
answerable to the President.

Nobody has ever claimed that GPS will be available for free to the
public al the time - so nobody can complain when its gone.

Yes, and they get told by their superiors, not by you.

Just how long do you think it would take for the congress to react?
Congress doesn't have oversight over GPS, if the decision is taken to
shut it down it will be down in less than 24 hours. Congress could
protest, but that would take time - and in the meantime the system would
stay down.

But SecDef controls it, and there's no ruling so far telling him not to
turn it off. Or did you hear any protest from congress or senate when
the announcement that started this thread was made?


Juergen Nieveler

 

In the old days it would have taken considerably longer - you'd have
fixed a set of points in the general direction of where you want to go,
and repeat the process from there.

There's a 2000 year old road that goes straight from one city to the
other for 50 miles or so, only a few miles from where I'm sitting: It
connected Cologne and Aachen during roman times. And from Aachen, there
was a road to Paris...

True, they're not millimeter-accurate, but accurate enough for the aim
that people tried to achieve: Building a straight road without missing
the target city by several miles. And yes, at one point there is a bend
in the road, where a hill was too steep - the road goes around, and
goes straight again as if they'd drawn a line right through the hill.

GPS makes things easier and cheaper, but that doesn't mean people were
incapable of doing things without it.

Juergen Nieveler

 

Indeed. But that person would be the President, and he gets payed to
take such decisions. If he decides to do so, you aren't going to change
it.


Juergen Nieveler