Will Your GPS Work in 2010?.....

I have read several articles reporting that the GAO (Government Accountability Office) has warned that the Air Force has under invested in the updating of the GPS system and there's a possibility that an interruption in GPS service could begin in 2010.

It seems that the Air Force is in charge of the GPS system for the United States and have dropped the ball when it comes to keeping up with their responsibility. This should not surprise anyone. Just look that the great job the Government has done with U.S. Post Office or Am track and the $1000 toilet seat.

A failure in the GPS network could become a very severe problem. The military depends on GPS for navigation of its' ships, planes and troupes. Not to mention US industry and the general public all who have become totally dependent on the GPS system.

According to the GAO report "In recent years, the Air Force has struggled to successfully build GPS satellites within cost and schedule goals; it encountered significant technical problems that still threaten its delivery schedule; and it struggled with a different contractor. As a result, the current IIF satellite program has overrun its original cost estimate by about $870 million and the launch of its first satellite has been delayed to November 2009--almost 3 years late." The report goes on the say "If the Air Force does not visit its schedule targets for development of GPS IIIA satellites, there'll be an increased likelihood that in 2010, as old satellites begin to fail, the general GPS constellation will fall below the number of satellites required to give the level of GPS service that the U.S. government commits to. Such a gap in capability could have wide-ranging impacts on all GPS users."

Anyone who is well-known with satellites knows that the sun causes eventual deterioration of the electronics on board. Globalstar (a satellite phone service) had serious satellite problems in 2006 through 2008 as their satellites were failing and their replacement program fell behind schedule. (sound familiar/) These failures seriously interrupted their service to the point where communication was almost impossible. This could easily happen to the GPS system due to the failue of appropiate oversight of this system.

Just imagine how the lack of GPS would affect you life. I'm a boater and depend almost entirely on GPS for navigation. The old Loran systems have been decommissioned and replaced with GPS. All of the early navigation systems are dependent on GPS.

If you have an automotive GPS system in your car, you may want to bone up on reading maps.

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