Galileo To Be Europe's Answer To US GPS 402
judgecorp writes "Two Galileo satellites that will signify the start of the European Union's answer to the American Global Positioning System will be launched into orbit on Thursday aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. It's using Soyuz because it is cheaper than the French Ariane — and the satellite system is supposed to free Europe from dependence on a U.S.-controlled positioning system."
Re:For such a vital system. (Score:2, Insightful)
GPS devices have a limited usable life anyways, at least the consumer devices. As the satellites are being shot into space and the system becomes operational new devices start to include also Galileo capability. The basic technology isn't that different from GPS, it isn't like going back to the 80's to develop the first GPS receivers again.
Not all of EU is in NATO. And it wouldn't be impossible for some of the EU states to shoot down the GPS satellites either.
Re:For such a vital system. (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't buy that the stated purpose for the system (independence from the US's military) is very credible, given that the US is, you know, part of NATO and whatnot. And if the EU does turn hostile to the US in some sort of bizarro-world, the US possesses capabilities to shoot them down. So it doesn't make a lot of sense along those lines.
Military alliances like NATO have their place, but I think a major part of this is not about being America's enemy, only about independence. Is it in Europe's interest to not feel they have to bow to America's political pressure? I should certainly think so. America is far to much in the pockets of big corporations, and as long as that is so, I think a politically weaker America is in everybody elses interest - and possibly in the American people's interest as well.
Re:For such a vital system. (Score:3, Insightful)
Stop spreading FUD. Europeans do not believe the EU is an evil institute. Sure, there are disagreements and minor political conflicts from time to time, just as there are elsewhere, but to imply that all Europeans think the EU is evil is going just a tad too far. At least we are not under the complete control of corporations as in the US. The EU still has a spine, at times, to stand up for what the citizens want in the face of corporate pressure. It's not perfect but it's far better than the US at the moment. When was the last time US politicians did something for their citizens that was not acting in concert with some corporation or organization (**AAs, I'm looking at you)?
Re:For such a vital system. (Score:5, Insightful)
The purpose is easy. Extract money from the citizens. That's the only purpose for which the EU exists.
Please spare us the "TAXES R T3H 3V1L" crap. I pay lots more tax here than I would in the US; however, unlike the case in the US, I find that at least some of the taxes get spent on things that tend to make life better for all.
It's sad that Europeans have to read this news on US sites.
Did you actually see where the links in TFS point to?
Maybe that explains why so many Europeans feel the EU is an evil institute. But I bet nobody outside the EU ever hears about tat.
"So many" = "a few right-wing nutjobs".
Nice attempt at trolling. Better luck next time.
Re:For such a vital system. (Score:2, Insightful)
ShakaUVM says: I don't buy that the stated purpose for the system (independence from the US's military) is very credible, given that the US is, you know, part of NATO and whatnot
Well, you better buy it, because Galileo is an old project which so far was crippled solely due to politics. Already back in the days when http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright [wikipedia.org] was secretary of state she was in Europe trying to stop the project using any pressure available. It was on the news.
Now, let us through away the polit-speak and polit-correctness for a moment and view the situation from purely pragmatic point. OK, ready?
Now, you are an empire. You control most of the world seas, have military bases in more than 100 countries (blatantly breaking even the agreement about Antarctica), your currency is the world currency, your language is lingua franka. Your military is larger than the rest of the world combined. Also, your military doctrine states that any attempt by any nation to diminish your almost complete dominance in space would be considered an act of war. You also do not subscribe to almost any international agreements that can even potentially harm your revenue, cultural, political or military dominance. Add to that the fact that in realpolitik there are no friends as such, only temporary collaborations with others that happen to have the same agenda or are benefiting from yours.
And empires in particular cannot have friends (even if there were friends in politics), only protectorates or enemies. By being so dominant you inadvertently position yourself as the enemy of everyone else. Sooner or later.
Now, last time I said on /. that the you-know-who is an Empire with all that implies, I was modded troll. Now, please do as you please, but try to think about this, read history, read between the lines and above all, find an intelligent military officer that can tell you what exactly they teach them in West Point. Then read history again. And remember - any other nation would behave the in the same way. Just don't fall for the "we are all friends and allies here, hell bent on promoting life, happiness and democracy all over the world"
Re:For such a vital system. (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, nationalist movements gain consensus by opposing against yelding any sovereignty to the european institutions; this makes the EU weaker, which then allows themselves to point out the EU is just a bureaucratic superstructure with no decision power.
The nationalists whine against the EU when it's time for a state to offer its help to other countries in the union, and then whine again against the EU when it's time to get help from the union, and it doesn't arrive because the nationalists in the other states behave exactly in the same way as they did before (see what happens every time some states are hit by an immigration wave).
Re:For such a vital system. (Score:5, Insightful)
Here in Norway we're almost 5 million people and our largest military threat - despite it being post-Cold War is Russia, which is a huge country who could field more soldiers than we have people. If NATO won't help we're screwed anyway and if NATO comes people expect the cavalry to come charging to our rescue anyway. But is the US interested in protecting people that can't be bothered to have a decent defense of their own? If everybody is betting on NATO to aid them, who'll be the ones delivering all the aid? Would you seriously accept the logic on anything that "They have tanks, so we don't have to" "They have carriers, so we don't have to" "They have submarines, so we don't have to". No, Europe should have its Galileo because it's ours even though the US has theirs and we're allies. An alliance should come on top of your own defense, not instead of it.
Re:For such a vital system. (Score:2, Insightful)
It would have, if they hadn't agreed to a design change that now allows selective jamming of the Galileo civilian signal by the US without affecting the GPS military signal. In the "discussion" leading up to that decision, the USA even threatened to shoot down Galileo satellites if it came to such a conflict without selective jamming being possible. Lovely.
Re:For such a vital system. (Score:4, Insightful)
This is total BS because the EU is going broke fast and they want to launch a billion dollar+ program (yes, Euro billion plus, whatever) for duplication?
No, they don't want to launch the programme. They launched the programme something like twenty years ago. They want to continue the programme, which is coming to fruition.
Re:For such a vital system. (Score:4, Insightful)
GPS includes a (currently disabled) feature called Selective Availability (SA) that adds intentional, time varying errors of up to 100 meters (328 ft) to the publicly available navigation signals. This was intended to deny an enemy the use of civilian GPS receivers for precision weapon guidance.
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/10140 [securityfocus.com]
President Bush has ordered plans for temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites during a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology, the White House said Wednesday.
So from what I understand, the accuracy of GPS can be degraded for civilians whenever the US government wishes to do it, and GWB tried to make it possible to switch off the network whenever a terrorist attack hits U.S. You have to admit that this doesn't make non-US users of the system feel very secure. I guess that in case of a terrorist attack, the US would not be very concerned about an ongoing French military operation in Ivory Coast for instance, and would switch off or degrade the system without a second thought.