December 2, 2009 at 15:24Problem GLONASS
Last week, the Russian Space Agency announced the failure of another satellite in the GLONASS system . Three more satellites failed last year. Unfortunately, these are far from the only technical difficulties that accompany the launch of the Russian global positioning system.
Until now, there is not a single mobile phone with GLONASS support and not a single miniature device in general, because the size of the receiver is a 3x4 cm board with high power consumption, although there are promising developments in miniaturization. The largest developer of GPS devices, the company Garmin, is not yet going to produce dual GPS / GLONASS receivers.
In 2006-2007, nearly half a billion dollars were allocated to finance the project, and in 2008 another $ 2.6 billion. It was planned to complete the formation of the orbital group with this money, having carried out two large-scale launches of three satellites on each launch vehicle in September and December 2009 year. In reality, to date, not a single launch has taken place.
The September launch had to be canceled due to some malfunction. On September 28, Prime Minister Putin demanded that these six satellites be launched by the end of the year, but at the end of October three satellites were sent back to the manufacturer with suspicion of internal defects. So it is unlikely that these plans are destined to come true, at least in the planned time, although they are trying hardlaunch at least the second three satellites before the end of December.
To cover the Earth, the system requires 21 satellites plus three spare ones (and for perfect operation it would be nice to have 30 orbits in orbit ). To fully cover the territory of Russia, 18 satellites are needed. There are currently 19 orbits in orbit, but only 15 of them are operational.
However, not everything is so bad. Recently, India joined the GLONASS project and agreed to pay for the launch of one satellite.
However, independent experts doubt the commercial prospects of GLONASS. For example, according to analysts at Troika Dialog, this system will be used by the military, but is unlikely to capture a significant part of the mass market.
via Brainstorm Tech
Until now, there is not a single mobile phone with GLONASS support and not a single miniature device in general, because the size of the receiver is a 3x4 cm board with high power consumption, although there are promising developments in miniaturization. The largest developer of GPS devices, the company Garmin, is not yet going to produce dual GPS / GLONASS receivers.
In 2006-2007, nearly half a billion dollars were allocated to finance the project, and in 2008 another $ 2.6 billion. It was planned to complete the formation of the orbital group with this money, having carried out two large-scale launches of three satellites on each launch vehicle in September and December 2009 year. In reality, to date, not a single launch has taken place.
The September launch had to be canceled due to some malfunction. On September 28, Prime Minister Putin demanded that these six satellites be launched by the end of the year, but at the end of October three satellites were sent back to the manufacturer with suspicion of internal defects. So it is unlikely that these plans are destined to come true, at least in the planned time, although they are trying hardlaunch at least the second three satellites before the end of December.
To cover the Earth, the system requires 21 satellites plus three spare ones (and for perfect operation it would be nice to have 30 orbits in orbit ). To fully cover the territory of Russia, 18 satellites are needed. There are currently 19 orbits in orbit, but only 15 of them are operational.
However, not everything is so bad. Recently, India joined the GLONASS project and agreed to pay for the launch of one satellite.
However, independent experts doubt the commercial prospects of GLONASS. For example, according to analysts at Troika Dialog, this system will be used by the military, but is unlikely to capture a significant part of the mass market.
via Brainstorm Tech