Europe Launches A New GPS System That Is Accurate To A Few Centimetres
When you're out in the wilderness and start up your GPS to pinpoint where you are in the world, your hand unit is actually using a number of different systems such as...
- Global Positioning System (GPS): 27 satellites including a system of control facilities scattered all over the planet and run by the United States Department of Defence
- Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS): 24 satellites operated by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
While there are other systems out there such as the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System and China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, only GPS and GLONASS function globally. Anyone with a GPS unit can tie in to the satellites for both location data and time/date information and it is accurate to about +/- 3 meters.
After 17 years of research and development, Europe has now launched a new GPS system called Galileo that has accuracy up to a few centimetres! Currently more satellites are being added, and the full system will be online by 2020. What's interesting about Galileo is that it isn't run by a government, but rather civilians. This gives us an alternate option in case a government decides to restrict access, or reduce accuracy at some point.
