All statements in this article are based on reliable information, and the sources are detailed at the end of the article
Since the development of GPS in the United States in 1973, every move in the world has been abbreviated on a single computer screen.
And now GPS has been integrated into all aspects of our lives, not only a military essential navigation instrument, but also an important guide for us to get from here to there.
So, imagine what would happen if the United States turned off GPS?
Some people say that now the global positioning system relies on the GPS of the United States, GPS has penetrated into the lives of the people, and without GPS is equivalent to no "eyes"!
There are even military fans who say: "If there is no GPS, then all the missiles in the world will become 'blind' overnight!"
Although GPS is important to us, there are two countries that can stand alone, is there our country?
1. How important is the GPS system?
The full name of the GPS system is Global Positioning System, and its main role is real-time positioning and navigation around the world.
These two functions sound like we have used them all today, after all, whether we are traveling or going abroad to find our way, we can't do without real-time positioning and navigation.
The initial use of satellite positioning was actually a military need, for the purpose of fighting wars and military affairs.
Relying on twenty-four artificial earth satellites, GPS provides us with accurate geolocation, vehicle speed, and precise time information.
In the 70s of the last century, the United States, the world power at that time, had already provided all-weather, global and real-time services for its navy, land and air forces.
These services not only helped the U.S. military with navigation, intelligence gathering, and nuclear explosion monitoring, but were also the most advanced technology at the time.
After 20 years of hard work and a cost of $20 billion, this epoch-making global positioning system was finally completed in 1994.
Although the GPS, which was of epoch-making significance at the time, had been built, the United States was still in a race against itself.
The GPS system is constantly being upgraded and improved to improve its functionality.
In 2007, a year before the Beijing Olympics, the United States underwent the largest GPS upgrade in history.
This version upgrade has greatly increased the transmission capacity of the third-generation global positioning system in the United States, and the anti-jamming capability has also doubled.
This move further improves the performance of GPS.
2. China's Beidou Navigation Satellite System
However, it is a coincidence that our country has also developed its own GPS - Beidou Satellite Navigation System.
Different from the GPS in the United States, the Beidou system is the result of our independence and self-reliance, marking an important breakthrough in the field of satellite navigation.
As early as the 80s of the 20 th century, our country began to explore the satellite navigation system, and gradually formed a "three-step" development strategy.
After decades of unremitting efforts, we have successively built the Beidou No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 systems, and gradually achieved regional to global coverage.
The construction process of the Beidou system can be described as magnificent.
Since the official start of the construction of the Beidou-1 system in 1994, it has been until the launch of two geostationary orbit satellites and put them into use in 2,000 years, and then the launch of more satellites one after another.
This step-by-step thing is the result of how many days and nights our entire Beidou research group has been fighting together.
Regarding the research and application of the Beidou satellite system, the speech of Yang Changfeng, the person in charge of the Beidou system, may give us some information.
Someone asked, "If our vehicles also use the Beidou system, can we achieve navigation with an accuracy of less than two meters?"
Yang Changfeng replied: "There are still some gaps in the positioning accuracy and reliability of Beidou satellites alone, but if they are combined with some other auxiliary machines or systems, the positioning function of the Beidou system will be doubled, and even unmanned driving can be realized." ”
Why is Yang Changfeng so confident in our Beidou satellite navigation system?
This is because in the construction of the Beidou-3 system, we have achieved ultra-high-density transmission and quickly completed the global networking.
At the same time, it also solves a series of problems of all-weather, high-precision, high-dynamic, global and real-time, and realizes a high degree of unity of spatial and temporal information.
Therefore, the Beidou satellite navigation system not only inherits the basic functions of the traditional navigation system, such as positioning, speed measurement, timing, etc., but also has many unique service capabilities.
For example, it provides a global short message communication function, so that users can still carry out simple information transmission through the Beidou system without other means of communication.
In addition, the Beidou system also provides regional short message communication, satellite-based augmentation, precision single-point positioning and other services for users in China and surrounding areas, further improving the user experience.
Today, the Beidou Navigation Satellite System has 39 satellites in orbit and has the ability to provide services for global users.
Compared with GPS, the performance accuracy of our country's Beidou satellite navigation system is comparable, and it is superior to GPS in local areas.
How do you understand this? It's actually very simple, let's take an example.
If the regional scope is limited to North America, Africa or Europe, the positioning accuracy of the Beidou satellite navigation system is really about five meters.
In the Asia-Pacific region, the accuracy can be cut in half, to 2.5 meters or 3 meters.
In fact, for the Beidou satellite navigation system, this is actually just the tip of the iceberg.
The most powerful feature is that the Beidou satellite system has a short message service of "sending text messages", that is, if it is a Huawei mobile phone or other on-board system.
If you cooperate with Beidou, you will send a text message to the user to inform you of the earthquake situation and other information.
Therefore, we no longer need to rely entirely on the GPS system of the United States, because we have our own Beidou satellite navigation system.
And our neighbor Russia is also a "hardworking" country, they also have their own "GPS" - the Gronass system.
3. Russia's GLONASS system
As early as 1960, the Russian military recognized the need for a more advanced satellite radio navigation system to support the precision strikes of their new generation of ballistic missiles.
At that time, the Tsiclon satellite navigation system receiving station could also be used, but the positioning speed was slow, so it could not navigate in real time.
As a result, the Ministry of National Defense, the Academy of Sciences, and the Navy joined forces to create a unified navigation scheme for the armed forces of land, sea, air and space.
They plan to develop a system that can track not only moving points on land, but also at sea and in the air, so that they can control everything on land, sea and in the air.
By 1970, they had identified the need for this system, and in 1976 they decided to establish the GLONASS.
This system, like Russia's "eye in the sky", covers the world with 24 satellites, providing high-precision position, speed and time information for military and civilians.
Despite the collapse of the USSR and economic difficulties encountered in the process of development, Russia never abandoned the development of this system and the launch of satellites.
Initially, the Soviet Union's involvement in the orbit of the Gronass satellite required a total of twenty-four satellites to orbit and provide global positioning services.
These 24 satellites can not only provide high-precision three-dimensional space, but also provide speed information and time information.
Twenty-one of them are working satellites and three are standby satellites, which the researchers placed in three circular orbits.
However, at that time, the Soviet Union's satellite technology was still somewhat different from that of the United States, so the Soviet Union launched three simulated satellites and 18 prototype satellites for testing between 1982 and 1985.
But the lifespan of these test satellites is only one year, and their real working life is only fourteen months.
The Soviets, who saw this data, realized that their own satellite positioning technology still had a long way to go.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the project was inherited by Russia, which improved these satellites and prototype satellites, enhanced the stability of the frequency, and constantly updated versions and launched satellites.
Finally, in 1996, the GLONASS system completed the launch of satellites with a full constellation and realized global positioning services.
The system began operation in 2007 with satellite positioning and navigation services only in Russia.
By 2009, GLONAS's business scope had expanded to the whole world, and it could determine the coordinates of land, sea and air as well as the speed of movement.
It is worth mentioning that in 2022, the Russian newspaper "Rossiya Gazeta" said that Roscosmos would provide the Russian Ministry of Transport and the Federal Air Transport Agency with a technical solution to replace the GPS system using the GLONASS navigation system on the same day.
It can be seen that the system technology of GLONASS is quite complete and can replace GPS.
At present, the satellite tree of GLONASS has reached 30 satellites, which is on par with GPS, but it is not as powerful as the 40 satellites of our Beidou system.
In terms of accuracy and performance, Groner is comparable to the European positioning system Jia Lili, but it is still a little worse than the mainland's Beidou.
At present, the accuracy of Gronass has improved to 0.3 meters.
This major advance will lead Russia's satellite positioning technology to a new peak and become the trump card of Russian technology.
epilogue
When we are self-reliant and have our own technology, we are not afraid of intimidation and threats from others.
This is the case in Russia and China, and there is no need to worry about the United States suddenly turning off the GPS, which is enough to see the importance of having its own independent technology.
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Resources:
Lieberthal2024-04-11"Once the United States turns off GPS, the world's missiles will be "blind" overnight?
Camouflage Frontier 2024-04-22"Once the United States turns off GPS, will the missiles of various countries become "blind"?