The US military forces launched the first GPS satellite in 1978. Since then, more then three dozens satellites have been launched on Earth’s orbit, servicing not only military and aviation forces but individual private users worldwide. In the history of the Global Positioning System, more than just one GPS satellite has been lost during launches or afterwards. Some orbiting devices expired, others required replacements for technical purposes, but what matters most is how the technology is applied in the performance of daily tasks. A GPS receiver decodes the signal sent by the satellite and gives the exact location based on latitude, longitude and altitude.
Science has made such progress that GPS satellite navigation is now incorporated in the design of smartphones. People depend more and more on GPS orientation and problems may appear if replacements do not come for the orbiting satellites that will expire in a few years. For the moment, there are management and funding issues that impair the proper reconditioning of the GPS applications. The US Air Force is in charge of the entire GPS satellite structure, the economic difficulties put a lot of stress on the managers who lack funds to invest in reconditioning.
At present there are some 31 satellites in service and since only four are necessary to get a fix on the position, the average user will not feel a change if some of the orbiting devices fail to work. Sometimes information may get redundant as the same GPS receiver can get simultaneous data from six or eight satellites, which is more than necessary. But in the eventuality of no real time positioning with the GPS satellite structures, we’d have to start using maps all over again. The military, maritime and transportation systems would suffer most if the satellites are not reconditioned.
In order to offer an alternative to the GPS satellite predominance, European states prepare to launch an independent satellite navigation system in 2010. Besides the USA, other countries that have GPS satellite dominance are Russia, China and India, that operate their own Global Positioning systems. No matter how things are managed in terms of policy, implementation and administration at the global level, the average user should not be seriously troubled by the different modifications that may occur in the GPS satellite system. In fact, the number of GPS users will get higher because of people’s attempt to improve the efficiency of navigation.