GLONASS vs. GPS: can Russia replace a foreign navigation system
Russia has long had its own navigation system – GLONASS.
A photo: Evgeniya GUSEVA
We were threatened by the GPS navigation system. Whether this will happen on the fact of an incident or an attack and disappear with threats, today it is impossible to say with certainty, because there are seven Fridays across the ocean on earth.
Russia has long had its own navigation system – GLONASS. Satellites for detection 60 kilometers from Krasnoyarsk. Specialists of the closed enterprise gave an exclusive interview to Komsomolskaya Pravda and told what navigation systems could be and what consequences would be sent from GPS. And is it worth worrying at all.
FATHERS-DESIGNERS
Getting to the territory of Zheleznogorsk, where the production is located, arises: the city is closed – due to the fact that there are several enterprises of the defense sector here. Academician M. F. Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems (ISS) are part of the Roscosmos State Corporation and are leaders in the only space industry.
The production halls are perfectly clean and have a lot of light. Employees go exclusively in light overalls, caps and shoe covers, and fitters look like professors. The features of their fine work do not differ, it is understandable. But they agreed to talk about the topic that interests us. They said that spacecraft for communication, television broadcasting, relaying, navigation, and geodesy were found here. Over 60 years, more than 1280 spacecraft have been assembled, more than 40 space systems and complexes have been put into operation. Two-thirds of Russia’s orbital constellation today are satellites designed and manufactured by ISS JSC.
The history of the company begins in 1959. Previously, they were engaged in the defense industry, designed ballistic missiles. The era of space conquest that began later, an enterprise densely occupied by satellites. By the way, in some areas Siberian designers were ahead of the rest of the planet. Much of what they are producing (and currently being discovered) is classified.
The Russian alternative to GPS was launched in 1993. By 2010, it covered the whole of Russia, and by 2011, it had almost global coverage.
Specifically.
A photo: Dmitry POLUKHIN
WHAT IT IS
GLONASS is a global navigation satellite system. It translates civilian signals to the nearest point on the globe, provides navigation services free of charge and without restrictions.
– The performance characteristics of the highest GLONASS and GPS systems, – says Sergey Revnivykh, Deputy General Director for the GLONASS Federal Monitoring Program of JSC Information Satellite Systems named after Academician M. F. Reshetnev. – Nevertheless, the main advantage of the GLONASS system for Russian consumers is that it develops thanks to the work of domestic specialists and works with those responsible for consumption, and its effect does not come from the appearance and technological solutions from abroad.
The movement of Russian satellites in orbit is not synchronized with the rotation of the Earth, which is why the domestic system is more stable in operation and this is the control of control over it. Unlike the American satellite, the Earth is synchronized, and they need corrective support to transmit accurate data. And one more difference – the polar zones of the Earth.
We add that most of the large and large countries have long been predicted how the monopoly on GPS could initially turn out. Therefore, in the world today there are several navigation satellite systems, not so large-scale, but you can cooperate with them if necessary. These are Chinese BeiDou, European Galileo, Japanese QZSS, Indian NavIC.
HE IS EVERYWHERE
In our country, all emergency services (Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Emergency Situations, ambulance) have been transferred to GLONASS since 2015. Sergey Revnivyh continues to list:
– All modern navigation microcircuits embedded in the equipment for the use of the destination perceive any sensitive navigation satellite systems, including GLONASS. They are used in sea and river transport, spacecraft, communication vehicles, unmanned ground and air vehicles, transportation control facilities, geodesy, in the social sphere, and so on. Almost all smartphones are also equipped with navigation chips.
The situation in recent years GLONASS is installed on smartphones and car navigators by default. Yandex.Navigator and Yandex.Maps work on it. So, if GPS betrays our lives, many will not even notice it.
True, with regard to the launch, it immediately offers something.
Our interlocutor says:
– Aircraft of the past are mostly foreign-made. They are GPS navigational aids. Some Russian-made aircraft are equipped with receivers that receive GLONASS and GPS signals, but this equipment is not certified by international aviation organizations and is auxiliary. The question of the availability of domestically produced certified navigation equipment that receives GLONASS signaling for civil aviation must be taken up.
If GPS falls out of our lives, many will not even notice it.
A photo: Ekaterina MARTINOVICH
IS IT POSSIBLE TO CUT OFF RUSSIA?
So is it possible to cut off Russia from GPS or not?
The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, has already repeated several times that this is technically difficult, because the orbital constellation cannot be used selectively on the territory of Russia. We are closely cooperating with China in the field of space navigation. And two combinations of systems – GLONASS and BeiDou, on behalf of the head of the industry, “gives global accuracy of the navigation signal.”
SAID
Disabling GPS is not a disaster for us
Oleg Sergeevich BASHMAKOV, civil aviation pilot, now a private pilot:
– I can say unequivocally: there is nothing wrong with Stan. Well, turn off GPS – GLONASS will work. But besides satellite navigators, there are other reliable and verified cases of aircraft hijacking in airspace. This is a two-way communication “crew – dispatcher” and radar control. The controller always sees the aircraft and considers its point of view to the point of landing. If the plane deviates slightly, the controller gives the command “take the correction to the left” or “take the correction to the right.” And I’m sure of our skill. Let me give you an example: Magadan air traffic controllers today can technically see an aircraft that is entering the taxiway at Vnukovo or Domodedovo. It happened that American air traffic controllers, accidentally in the flight of their main aircraft, according to the good old tradition, contacted regional air traffic controllers (maybe somewhere they were once united or trained – contacts remained) and asked: “Help, I lost my plane in the area Australia, here is his call sign … “Our radar controller is doing, replies:” I see a bird, moving in the direction. So turning off GPS for us is not a disaster.