develop signal processing techniques to legally reduce the error introduced by the
military,
24
and soon commercial navigators also started providing precise
measurements.
In May 2000, at the direction of President Bill Clinton, the US government
discontinued its use of selective availability in order to make GPS more responsive to civil and commercial users worldwide. From that moment onward, the US
companies that supplied the Pentagon started marketing their military products
duly modified for civilian use and benefited from a huge competitive advantage.
Trimble, Magellan and Navtech acquired a dominant market share that remains to
this day. In 2015, the Satellite Industry Association estimated that US companies
had 44% of the global turnover of satellite receivers, amounting to $31 billion.
25
In 2019, the European Navigation Authority GSA
26
published its forecast for
worldwide satellite navigation devices, smartphones and car navigators, estimating a rise from the current 6.4 to 9.6 billion in 2029.
27
GPS satellites are the size of a small car. They are nowhere near as complex as
their big brothers, the telecommunication satellites, which weigh several tons and
broadcast hundreds of television channels. The first-generation GPS satellites
only needed 1,000 watts of electrical power to operate – as much as an ordinary
hair dryer. From a technological point of view, the Global Positioning System is
an engineering marvel, a symphony of clocks whizzing at 2.5 miles per second
aboard 31 satellites orbiting the Earth at 14,900 miles above the Earth. Every point
on the planet is constantly reached by radio signals emitted in perfect synchrony
with the movement of a group of electrons rotating around the nucleus of an atom
of caesium.
Even in light of these fascinating technical aspects, it should never be forgotten
that GPS is an essential tool for the global geopolitical supremacy of the US. It
contributes to the operations of ballistic missiles, nuclear submarines, drones,
bombers and every single soldier in the US armed forces. And with its increasingly widespread use in the modern world economy, its malfunction – intentional
or otherwise – would dramatically disrupt the industry and global finance.
Telecommunication and electric utility companies, airlines, cloud-computing
24
The so-called differential GPS technique allows you to have a position accuracy of the order
of a meter even in the presence of signals altered by NORAD. Considering fixed locations,
whose geographic position has been determined by other means of measurement, for each
specific geographic area, the GPS signal received from these locations actually also provides
information on how wrong it is. By comparing the satellite data with the one known a priori, it
is possible to calculate the error induced in that area. Then, by communicating the value of the
induced inaccuracy to the different GPS receivers that are nearby, they can make corrections.
25
Satellite Industry Association. 2016. State of the Satellite Industry Report, 2016.
26
https://www.gsa.europa.eu/.
27
https://www.gsa.europa.eu/system/files/reports/market_report_issue_6_v2.pdf.
GPS: The Stellar Clock 59
military,
24
and soon commercial navigators also started providing precise
measurements.
In May 2000, at the direction of President Bill Clinton, the US government
discontinued its use of selective availability in order to make GPS more responsive to civil and commercial users worldwide. From that moment onward, the US
companies that supplied the Pentagon started marketing their military products
duly modified for civilian use and benefited from a huge competitive advantage.
Trimble, Magellan and Navtech acquired a dominant market share that remains to
this day. In 2015, the Satellite Industry Association estimated that US companies
had 44% of the global turnover of satellite receivers, amounting to $31 billion.
25
In 2019, the European Navigation Authority GSA
26
published its forecast for
worldwide satellite navigation devices, smartphones and car navigators, estimating a rise from the current 6.4 to 9.6 billion in 2029.
27
GPS satellites are the size of a small car. They are nowhere near as complex as
their big brothers, the telecommunication satellites, which weigh several tons and
broadcast hundreds of television channels. The first-generation GPS satellites
only needed 1,000 watts of electrical power to operate – as much as an ordinary
hair dryer. From a technological point of view, the Global Positioning System is
an engineering marvel, a symphony of clocks whizzing at 2.5 miles per second
aboard 31 satellites orbiting the Earth at 14,900 miles above the Earth. Every point
on the planet is constantly reached by radio signals emitted in perfect synchrony
with the movement of a group of electrons rotating around the nucleus of an atom
of caesium.
Even in light of these fascinating technical aspects, it should never be forgotten
that GPS is an essential tool for the global geopolitical supremacy of the US. It
contributes to the operations of ballistic missiles, nuclear submarines, drones,
bombers and every single soldier in the US armed forces. And with its increasingly widespread use in the modern world economy, its malfunction – intentional
or otherwise – would dramatically disrupt the industry and global finance.
Telecommunication and electric utility companies, airlines, cloud-computing
24
The so-called differential GPS technique allows you to have a position accuracy of the order
of a meter even in the presence of signals altered by NORAD. Considering fixed locations,
whose geographic position has been determined by other means of measurement, for each
specific geographic area, the GPS signal received from these locations actually also provides
information on how wrong it is. By comparing the satellite data with the one known a priori, it
is possible to calculate the error induced in that area. Then, by communicating the value of the
induced inaccuracy to the different GPS receivers that are nearby, they can make corrections.
25
Satellite Industry Association. 2016. State of the Satellite Industry Report, 2016.
26
https://www.gsa.europa.eu/.
27
https://www.gsa.europa.eu/system/files/reports/market_report_issue_6_v2.pdf.
GPS: The Stellar Clock 59