firms, logistics and global shipping companies, radio and TV stations, banks and
financial companies around the world all use GPS to synchronize their systems
and services. You are using GPS when you turn on a smartphone or open an application to search for an address; even while taking cash from an ATM machine,
GPS signals provide precise timing. Nowadays, time is money, and since digital
money moves much faster than human beings, banks and stock exchanges worldwide rely on the exact timing of the GPS signal to manage transactions. Financial
investors and markets spend many millions of dollars to improve their algorithms
and communication systems in order to execute transactions faster than their competitors – even by just a few milliseconds. But they could not do any of that if they
did not have free access to GPS signals.
If we read the history of the world with a romantic eye, we could consider GPS
a gift of immense value from the US government to humankind. But we must keep
in mind that it is a gift we have become undeniably dependent on, and one that
reinforces US supremacy around the whole world.
To counteract the Americans, Russia built its own satellite navigation system,
named GLONASS (Global’naja Navigacionnaja Sputnikovaja Sistema), which
experienced delays and lack of funding. It became operative in 1993 but was only
fully completed in 2015 and has not become a global standard. In Europe, the GPS
monopoly gave rise to so much concern that some governments felt it was strategically necessary to have their own satellite navigation system.
In the eighties, ESA carried out studies for a satellite constellation, the Global
Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), which was intended to outperform the GPS
precision and reliability. Since ESA could not by statute build military satellites,
its officials strongly emphasized that GNSS would have had an exclusively civilian use. Nevertheless, many observers remained suspicious that ESA was being
politically influenced by France to build a system in Europe that would be available to its Force de Frappe.
28
ESA member-states did not provide enough financial
resources for the project, and so in late nineties, the political and industrial lobbies
from both Paris and Berlin had GNSS included in the European Union’s agenda,
making it a so-called pillar program of the Union itself.
29
In this way, it was possible to activate special funds from the EU budget in addition to ESA resources.
GNSS was renamed Galileo
30
in 1999.
28
French expression to indicate the French atomic weapon capability, with which General De
Gaulle wanted France to play a primary role in international affairs. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/it/dizionario/inglese/force-de-frappe.
29
Hursoy, Siret. 2002. The New Security Concept and German-French Approaches to the
European Pillar of Defence 1990–2000. Tectum Verlag, 212.
30
https://galileognss.eu/the-history-of-galileo/.
60 GPS: The Stellar Clock
financial companies around the world all use GPS to synchronize their systems
and services. You are using GPS when you turn on a smartphone or open an application to search for an address; even while taking cash from an ATM machine,
GPS signals provide precise timing. Nowadays, time is money, and since digital
money moves much faster than human beings, banks and stock exchanges worldwide rely on the exact timing of the GPS signal to manage transactions. Financial
investors and markets spend many millions of dollars to improve their algorithms
and communication systems in order to execute transactions faster than their competitors – even by just a few milliseconds. But they could not do any of that if they
did not have free access to GPS signals.
If we read the history of the world with a romantic eye, we could consider GPS
a gift of immense value from the US government to humankind. But we must keep
in mind that it is a gift we have become undeniably dependent on, and one that
reinforces US supremacy around the whole world.
To counteract the Americans, Russia built its own satellite navigation system,
named GLONASS (Global’naja Navigacionnaja Sputnikovaja Sistema), which
experienced delays and lack of funding. It became operative in 1993 but was only
fully completed in 2015 and has not become a global standard. In Europe, the GPS
monopoly gave rise to so much concern that some governments felt it was strategically necessary to have their own satellite navigation system.
In the eighties, ESA carried out studies for a satellite constellation, the Global
Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), which was intended to outperform the GPS
precision and reliability. Since ESA could not by statute build military satellites,
its officials strongly emphasized that GNSS would have had an exclusively civilian use. Nevertheless, many observers remained suspicious that ESA was being
politically influenced by France to build a system in Europe that would be available to its Force de Frappe.
28
ESA member-states did not provide enough financial
resources for the project, and so in late nineties, the political and industrial lobbies
from both Paris and Berlin had GNSS included in the European Union’s agenda,
making it a so-called pillar program of the Union itself.
29
In this way, it was possible to activate special funds from the EU budget in addition to ESA resources.
GNSS was renamed Galileo
30
in 1999.
28
French expression to indicate the French atomic weapon capability, with which General De
Gaulle wanted France to play a primary role in international affairs. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/it/dizionario/inglese/force-de-frappe.
29
Hursoy, Siret. 2002. The New Security Concept and German-French Approaches to the
European Pillar of Defence 1990–2000. Tectum Verlag, 212.
30
https://galileognss.eu/the-history-of-galileo/.
60 GPS: The Stellar Clock