Thread

1. gorgoiler · 1790191708 · focus · HN ↗

   Presumably when World War 3 kicks off the very first thing each adversary will do is knock out their opponents satellites? These are like flying lightbulbs that shine down usefulness from above, so step one is to cut the lights.

   Presumably-squared there is some kind of military backup to survive once the lights (GPS) go dark? Whatever that technology is, why hasn’t it proliferated into civilian life so that we all benefit from a resilient, non-GPS backup?

   Perhaps the answer is that every tank has a 10lb inertial navigation gyro or some other thingy in it as a backup, and the platoon around it uses the tank as a moving trig point? In that case I can see it being infeasible to deploy that for civilians.

   Perhaps-squared it’s just economics — GPS is cool and cheap now, so why burn profit margin on developing an alternative?

   1. nostrademons · 1790196276 · focus · HN ↗

      There's technology now that matches local satellite/aerial images against the imagery that a drone or cruise missile sees to replace the GPS chip.

      For fairly obvious reasons, militaries that have it would rather it stay in their hands, for fear of creating a non-state peer competitor that can do cheap long-range strikes on strategic targets.

      It's fairly likely it'll fall into private hands anyway though, because anyone who can afford the prices for commercial satellite imagery could build such a thing.

      1. FlowingRiver · 1790212840 · focus · HN ↗

         So long as the targeted area is limited, you only need imagery data for set routes/areas and can keep local data pools reasonable.

         Can already see the poor headlines of "Snapdragon chips used to bomb schools!"

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