Launch of India's First Navigation Satellite Successful 89
An anonymous reader writes "India's first dedicated navigation satellite, the IRNSS-1A, developed by the Indian Space Research Organization, was successfully put in orbit on Monday night. The launch vehicle, PSLV-C22, bearing the 1,425-kg navigation satellite, blasted off the launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Center here at the scheduled lift-off time of 11.41 p.m."
The satellite is the first of seven that will eventually provide a regional equivalent of GPS under complete Indian control.
Out of curiosity... (Score:5, Interesting)
Is India's space navigation system sufficiently similar(in terms of frequencies, antenna demands, etc.) that it will be relatively easy to shoehorn into navigation chipsets along with GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo, or is it enough of an oddball in some way, either technologically or administratively(a more hardass version of the old GPS civilian precision reduction that the US used to use or occassionally threaten to use), that this is basically irrelevant for everybody who isn't Indian military?
Re:Out of curiosity... (Score:5, Funny)
we'll have to call their tech support and get a reading from a script to find out
Re:Out of curiosity... (Score:5, Funny)
we'll have to call their tech support and get a reading from a script to find out
But when you call, you get someone in Texas.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd have an easier time understanding english from India than amurikan from Texas.
Re:Out of curiosity... (Score:5, Funny)
We do have some deep-cover operatives working in Texas(as with other authoritarian petro-theocracies, it pays to keep an eye on them); but if somebody tells you that they are "an American from Texas", they are probably telling one of the inside jokes that they use on foreigners. Texas has texans which are a totally different thing.
and there are alot of us. Federal or state? (Score:1)
So the question for you in Connecticut or wherever is this:
Do you want millions of Texans telling you how to live , through federal legislation, or do you want your state's citizens to decide how you do things there in Connecticut, and we can do it our way in Texas?
Re: (Score:3)
So what... Texas is the Québec of the USA?
Re: (Score:2)
That's hilarious ... I've been saying exactly that for years.
Re: (Score:3)
While both Connecticut and Texas are relatively rich states and contribute more to the federal treasury than they take, people in Connecticut contribute about 3x as much toward the treasury compared with Texans... Only Delaware, Minnesota, and New Jersey pay more into the treasury per capita versus what they take out. That's part of the reason the people in NJ were so upset when congress initially balked at Sandy relief.
Re: (Score:2)
While both Connecticut and Texas are relatively rich states and contribute more to the federal treasury than they take,
Only Delaware, Minnesota, and New Jersey pay more into the treasury per capita versus what they take out.
Mildly confused. Connecticut and Texas contribute more to the treasury than they take, but not per capita..?
Re: (Score:2)
LOL, that would be a trick, wouldn't it?
No, I meant that both Connecticut and Texas pay more than they take, but if you are from Connecticut this imbalance is much larger than if you are from Texas. I think it's like $6000 per capita in Connecticut and in the $2000 range for a Texan.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah but that whole independence thing tends to stop at the state level.
I.e. rephrase as follows... ...and there'll be many in Houston, Dallas, etc. who would absolutely love it if Austin and others were controlled top-down by a more politically aligned s
The question for you in Austin or wherever is this:
Do you want millions of Houstonians telling you how to live, through state legislation, or do you want your county's citizens to decide how you do things there in Travis, and we can do it our way in Harris?
Re: (Score:2)
Wouldn't it be the other way? Since the state capitol is in Austin, wouldn't the question for those in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Armadillo or wherever be - Do you want millions of Austinians telling you how to do things, or do you want to arrange it locally in Houston, Dallas, et al?
On a different note, it's interesting how this thread had been hijacked. Unlike the satellite
No, Austin is much different from College Station (Score:2)
have their coed public restrooms in Austin, and we can keep our "Men's Room" signs up. Tomorrow, I'll be shooting fireworks, which
are illegal in many parts of the state. I happen to be a pyro geek, spending hundreds of dollars and many hours preparing my show.
As I enjoy the beautiful chemistry in the sky, I'll be glad that Houston politicians can't stop me. They can do it their w
Re: (Score:3)
Do you want millions of Texans telling you how to live , through federal legislation, or do you want your state's citizens to decide how you do things there in Connecticut, and we can do it our way in Texas?
It depends. People in every state likely have the same needs and desires when it comes to things like education, healthcare, and abortion, or freedoms like who they can marry. It's silly to have to drive across a state line to address these needs or desires. If y'all want to make the steer the state animal or drive 85 on your roads, have at it. States' rights are a vestige of 18th century America, in my opinion, and today are used more for political purposes than ensuring freedom and keeping the Union vi
Re: (Score:2)
People in every state likely have the same needs and desires when it comes to things like... abortion
Look, either they're fundamentalist nuts or brainwashed Obama-supporters. While I'll admit that I don't know which are worse, they still aren't exactly the same thing. :)
'cept for the ones who can't read the Bill of Righ (Score:2)
Connecticut is one of only four states with a law specifically allowing abortion, explicitly saying your GF has the right to murder your child.
Texas is currently passing a law saying that more than five months into a pregancy, abortion is illegal. So the citizens of the different
states don't have the same desires in terms of abortion, for sure.
Healthcare? Show me a
Re: (Score:2)
We do have some deep-cover operatives working in Texas
Wouldn't that be Deepak cover operatives?
Re: (Score:1)
Well, for one, it will only cover the region around India, so it is irrelevant for everyone that is not in the area.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Regional_Navigational_Satellite_System
Re: (Score:2)
Well, for one, it will only cover the region around India, so it is irrelevant for everyone that is not in the area.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Regional_Navigational_Satellite_System
That's a coverage area, so it seems like the sort of thing that would be worth throwing in if the only additional cost above the existing GPS module/antenna is a few Kb of extra firmware; but not large enough to be worth the effort, outside of India-specific devices, if you need to throw additional hardware at the problem. [wikimedia.org]
Re:Out of curiosity... (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, I really fucked that up, teach me to post while sick. Anyway, my intent was to suggest that a coverage area that gets you a good chunk of southeast asia, a bit of middle east, plus the entire Indian subcontinent, some stuff to the north of it, and the Indian ocean(not exactly an abandoned bit of water, for shipping and all) seems quite likely to be worth shoving into the spec sheet if you just need to implement a few additional algorithms(that something else in your product line for the Indian market will need anyway); but without world coverage it wouldn't be worth actually increasing the BoM cost all that much.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Given that most of these satellite navigation systems have 'guide munitions to target' as a major(often primary) goal, building a purely domestic one is a bit of a waste of time.
Re: (Score:2)
Given that most of these satellite navigation systems have 'guide munitions to target' as a major(often primary) goal, building a purely domestic one is a bit of a waste of time.
Actually the region covers most of the likely enemies.
Re: (Score:2)
Those satellites will be flying around the world, they won't be geostationary birds parked above India, right? While they may not offer full coverage elsewhere, any receiver will benefit from having signals from more birds available, if there's a sane way to reconcile the time bases used by different systems.
Re: (Score:2)
Is India's space navigation system sufficiently similar(in terms of frequencies, antenna demands, etc.) that it will be relatively easy to shoehorn into navigation chipsets along with GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo, or is it enough of an oddball in some way, either technologically or administratively(a more hardass version of the old GPS civilian precision reduction that the US used to use or occassionally threaten to use), that this is basically irrelevant for everybody who isn't Indian military?
Reading TFA it is substantially different, in that the satellites are in a geostationary orbit over India. I would imagine this makes the frequencies, positioning algorithms, etc. quite different. I can understand why we did it that way, you get a working system with much fewer satellites than the GPS system
Re: (Score:2)
Wish I had mod points. This is a very cogent question. Too much of what seems to be being done in space so far by prestige-oriented countries seems to simply be "follow-the-leader". Replicate the US space program (with most of its defects) as closely as possible. The Soviets even were working away on a space shuttle, though thankfully the Chinese don't seem headed down that precise dead end.
I think the US (making a virtue out of the necessity of low budgets for space) private sector approach looks very prom
Re: (Score:1)
From the wikipedia article:
"The design of the payload makes the IRNSS system inter-operable and compatible with GPS and Galileo."
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
From the link provided above:
The payload generates navigation signals at L5 and S-band. The design of the payload makes the IRNSS system inter-operable and compatible with GPS and Galileo. [skyrocket.de]
Re: (Score:2)
iphone5 supports glonass.. (Score:4, Informative)
iphone 5 for one.. here's a list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Smartphones_using_GLONASS_Navigation [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Apparently [wikipedia.org], the list is a decent sized one, among recent phones. My understanding is that(outside of mathematically-interesting-but-practically-useless SDR setups [sparkfun.com], which are really cool; but very computationally demanding and cost as much as most smartphones even without a host to do the compute) most GPS or GPS+others modules abstract away virtually all the dirty details and just provide position, heading, and time information(possibly some additional parameters, SNR, that sort of thing, depending on vendo
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Go check out the number of GPS like systems that are now up and running, it's crazy!
Re: (Score:2)
*Subject to the lunch and tea-times of the members of the committee.
Re: (Score:1)
Dear AC, your whole post is pointless because you made a wrong assumption:
* Mr. Hasselhoff actually is talented, but this goes unnoticed in his own country.
He's also unnoticed in Canada, so the rest of your rant is pointless.
Also, the Invisible Pink Unicorn is stronger than your so-called Beast, so we have nothing to worry about.
Congrats (Score:2)
Re:Congrats (Score:5, Funny)
Yesterday, I read about a failed launch from Russia.
Today, I read about a successful launch from India.
I'm sure there's a "in Soviet Russia" mixed in with an "India tech support" joke in there somewhere.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'd probably avoid [wikipedia.org] asking Europe for advice on navigation systems for a few years until they work things out...
Re: (Score:2)
Damned right! Look at all that technology they stole from that great American, Wernher von Braun.
This week so far: (Score:5, Funny)
India 1, Russia 0.
So far, it sucks. (Score:5, Funny)
You are somewhere on the surface of a sphere 20121.2km from satellite #1
Although they've promised a firmware upgrade that will show you as being somewhere on the circle that represents the intersection of that sphere and the Earth's surface.
Re: (Score:1)
I guess they are smart enough not to risk three satellites at once?
Re: (Score:1)
One satellite and you expect miracles? Of course it can't accurately place where you are. Even the US GPS system requires you to get a fix on at least three, and preferably four, satellites to really put you on the map (as it were).
Re: (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure that it was a joke-posting.
Re:So far, it sucks. (Score:4, Informative)
It is not three, preferably four. It is four.
One tells you a circular line on the globe where you could be at any place on that line.
Two tells you two intersections of that line you could be.
Three tells you either one of the two points where you are located within a margin, or what altitude you are within a margin.
The fourth one is to determine which of the two points you are located, your altitude, and gives significant increase in accuracy by providing overlapping spatial and temporal data.
It may appear that three is enough as most receivers have a rudimentary altimeter based on pressure. Even in such cases, the accuracy is very poor and reasonable navigation requires computation of previous known points along with your estimated speed and direction. It is better than doing it by hand (unless you have a compass and know how to use it), but not by much.
Re: (Score:3)
Even the US GPS system requires you to get a fix on at least three, and preferably four, satellites to really put you on the map (as it were).
Not [slashdot.org] this [slashdot.org] again [slashdot.org]...
You need a minimum of four sats, period.
Re: (Score:2)
'woosh' comes to mind :)
Re: (Score:1)
That's actually amazing. One satellite and your device can tell how far away it is.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
I am one of the early beta testers for this project.
with no knowledge of how GPS system works, how did you even get to be a beta tester?
Re: (Score:2)
Don't you need at least 3 satellites overhead to calculate a geocode?
Third world countries of the past stepping up (Score:3)
while "democratic" first world countires are reverting to totalitarianism. As the old third world wealth and world power grows its going to be interesting how the "old" first woirld citizen react to this when their applying for the "tech support" jobs when the roles are reversed.
India (Score:1)
"If you wish to keep slaves, you must have all kinds of guards. The cheapest way to have guards is to have the slaves pay taxes to finance their own guards. To fool the slaves, you tell them that they are not slaves and that they have Freedom. You tell them they need Law and Order to protect them against bad slaves. Then you tell them to elect a Government. Give them Freedom to vote and they will vote for their own guards and pay their salary. They will then believe they are Free persons. Then give them mon