The Future of Global Positioning Satellite Technology
The technology of today has given us an ingenious device with which we can find our way through unfamiliar places. This device is simply called a gps system or to be more exact global positioning satellite. This interesting device was originally devised by the military to navigate their aircraft and other systems with the aid of tracking satellites.
The original global positioning satellite system was designed sometime during the late 1960s. This device was called Transit and it utilized seven satellites and radio signals to receive and send coordinate information. The next improvement to the global positioning satellite system was developed during that same time period. Unlike its predecessor this new gps system worked using an atomic clock.
Even though these were all improvements on the navigational process there were still issues of inefficiency and inaccuracy to be dealt with. To combat this problem the Navy and the Air Force joined forces and created a new gps device. This device was called Navigation System and Ranging or the shorted form was called NAVSTAR. The launch of this device came about during the early 1970s.
Once the system was perfected to a large degree, the point of use swung towards the general public as well. Today you will see many different uses for the global positioning satellite systems. These range from cell phone, car gps systems, hiking gps devices, hand held devices. There is even a patent pending for a global positioning satellite system to be embedded into shoes that children wear.
These are just a few of the many different applications you will find global positioning satellite systems being used for. While many of the uses of these devices are helpful, there are issues about privacy which need to be settled before too long. At the moment the benefits of using these gps devices outweighs the disadvantages. This is especially true of cell phone uses who have become stranded or been in an accident.
In the earlier time periods there was no actual way of determining the location of cell phone callers who needed help. This was due to the fact that their phones themselves were not traceable, unlike that of land phones. This problem has been resolved with the embedding of global positioning satellite technology.
Today all new cell phones have this technology embedded into their systems. As a result emergency and rescue services now have an easier time locating and providing help to cell phone users.
With so many new ways of finding people and places it seems hard to imagine that a small device can take us places. Today the city streets are open to us thanks to global positioning satellite technology, tomorrow who knows where we will venture.
Question by redryan: What global position satellite systems is the batter GLONASS or are GPS navigation system.?
what is the main deference between the two systems. what are the advantages and disadvantage
Best answer:
Answer by Mark G
GPS. GLONASS has not been serviced for a number of years and has a large number of coverage problems. Although Russian does intend to rebuild the system, likely as not it will not have full coverage.
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February 2012 M T W T F S S « Nov 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Recent Posts
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- The Future of Global Positioning Satellite Technology
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GPS. It is slightly more accurate and other than GLONASS, really working already.
The difference between both is also the aspect, that GPS expects more intelligence from the receiver, which in turn made it easier to improve the accuracy with software updates.
But once Galileo starts operation, this will likely replace GPS as most accurate navigation service, at least until the next generation of NAVSTAR satellites gets done.
PS: GPS has also no full coverage… it has even less coverage as GLONASS, as GLONASS has higher inclination orbits. But GPS has a complete constellation, while GLONASS still has many satellite slots empty.
GPS is technically a more accurate system. The clock tolerances on the SVs are better plus GLONASS uses very slightly different frequencies for each SV’s transmission which in theory at least can cause different delays on each signal.
This is however a fairly academic question since most systems are either purely GPS or GPS/GLONASS combined systems.
GALILEO is in theory a better system than GPS if the EU ever gets its act together. Due to the rather silly choice of codes for GALILEO the receivers will be more complex and so more costly however by the time GALILEO is functional enough to use on its own that shouldn’t be much of an issue.
Combined GPS/GLONASS/GALILEO systems are already on sale which will use signals from all 3 systems in order to give the best possible position.
Just don’t expect to see any of those on sale in the local electronics store any time soon, the cost is a little on the high side.
The major technical differences are as follows:
- GPS uses a CDMA (code division multiple access) technique to transmit satellite data, GLONASS uses an FDMA (frequency division multiple access) technique to transmit satellite data. In other words, GPS uses the same frequency but [slightly] different code modulations for each satellite, while GLONASS transmits the same code modulation but different frequencies each satellite
- The respective space segments (i.e. satellites) have their own unique characteristics (e.g. # of orbital planes, ascending nodes, # of satellites per orbital plane, orbital periods, etc). GLONASS’ space segment was designed to best suit coverage for Russia.
- GPS works in a datum called WGS84, GLONASS works in PZ90
Technically, GPS is a more “accurate” system but the real advantages/disadvantages are really more political/logistical. As previously mentioned, the GLONASS system isn’t fully operational. So you won’t get as many GLONASS satellites as you would GPS and you couldn’t rely on GLONASS as a stand-alone system. However, GLONASS can be used (and is used) as a compliment to GPS. The addition of GLONASS measurements can be used to enhance GPS performance.
Depending on how your using the system, there may also be features in your GPS receiver that monitor integrity of the signals you are tracking (e.g. RAIM, FDE/FDI). These features will provide better accuracy by excluding bad signals. [To my knowledge] The degraded state of GLONASS don’t allow similar features in a GLONASS receiver.