from Hacker News

Last satellite in the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System launched

by subhashp on 4/13/18, 6:31 AM with 79 comments

  • by nautical on 4/13/18, 8:04 AM

    Reason to start working on the system as per the article :

    "It is a culmination of 17 years of rigorous work by Indian space scientists. India took a firm decision on IRNSS in 1999 after the US government refused to share GPS data that would provide vital information on Pakistani troops position during Kargil war. As in the previous launches of the IRNSS satellites, PSLV-C41 has also used ‘XL’ version of PSLV equipped with six strap-ons, each carrying 12 tonnes of propellant."

  • by vardump on 4/13/18, 9:08 AM

    So my phone can use these satellite navigation systems: U.S. GPS, Russian GLONASS, European Galileo, Chinese BeiDou and Japanese QZSS.

    I guess one more doesn't hurt, huh?

    It's curious how major powers all want to have their own satellite navigation systems.

    Edit: QZSS is a regional system, and not due to start until November 2018, yet my phone detected one of those satellites earlier about 2-3 weeks ago. Interesting, especially considering I'm nowhere near Japan. Unless, of course, it was a bug or some weird error case. Or maybe QZSS was doing some early testing?

  • by msravi on 4/13/18, 11:19 AM

    Curious. Do missile systems also lose track of their position midway through a flight like our phones? Are the receivers radically better than the ones in our phones? What happens if a missile loses its coordinates because of a bad signal? Does it just continue and keep track of its position based on the last known position or does it abort? If it cannot lock on to a GPS signal at the start of its flight, does it fail to take off?

  • by lifeisstillgood on 4/13/18, 8:57 AM

    This is both amazing and sad. Amazing because its the emergence of (yet another) a space power, and amazing because it gives the world more and presumably healthy competition for a globally useful technology.

    Sad because "we built, planned, funded and launched this awesome technology because ... war"

    Humans. What a species.

  • by s_dev on 4/13/18, 8:42 AM

    How does this compare to the Americans GPS? Is it as good or was it designed with different constraints in mind?

  • by dingo_bat on 4/13/18, 8:31 AM

    Now I'm just waiting for GPS chip manufacturers to add support. Should increase resolution for those in the subcontinent :)

  • by yaochao on 4/13/18, 8:12 AM

    yet China has Beidou navigation system

  • by Marc_Bryan on 4/13/18, 9:21 AM

    IMHO, it's pretty useless compared to the current government and country's scenario. They better electrify the villages and provide better sanitation to the people rather then spending millions on mars, moon missions to prove their superiority! What a waste!

    It may stop working in a year or two like any of their indigenous inventions!!

    I'm not undermining any Indians, nor the way they work but as they are governed is by far the worst considering the current and past situations.

    No quality, no nothing.