The US government has expressed their concern over the danger of the satellite navigation systems in the world breaking down within 2012. The concern that the twenty year old system of global positioning was heading to a break down has been not only pestering the officials, but also has spread to the reach of the commoner. It is yet to be analysed how the news will affect the sales of the sat nav devices throughout the world.
The whole episode was unearthed by a research conducted by GAO of the US (Government Accountability Office of the US), which admonished that atleast a handful of satellites were rapidly approaching their expiry date, particularly for the lack of investment compounded by mismanagement. In case of the inevitable happening, millions of sat nav consumers in the world will obviously be at the receiving end predominantly, even as the national security as well as the military segments would also feel the impact.
The Air Force of the United States has been overseeing the satellite sector, since early 1990s. It has been reported that the US Air Force is at present spending billions to revive the system to an up-to-date status. However, GAO has chastised the satellite maintaining authority fro overspending and delays that are putting the entire system in jeopardy. This argument of the GAO is based on the fact that the first replacement system, the launch of which was due in 2007 had been severally delayed to finally shedule for 2009 November.
In the UK as well, sat nav devices has evolved into nothing less than a routine in the peoples’ lives. It will be tough on these people if a sat nav breakdown occurs abruptly. The GPS analyst of Satellite Navigation, Akeila Kahn opined that the numerous unsavourable sat nav misleading episodes in the UK can be, to an extent linked to the degraded state of the satellite system, which hampers the accuracy of even the most advanced sat navs.
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