GPS is now 50 years old (and obsolete)

In May 1983 the very first transatlantic flight (military) using GPS was completed – thereby completing the primary testing of the world’s newest navigational aide. Three years later I helped load a prototype GPS unit on the Voyage for the first circumnavigation, non-stop, non-refueled flight — and it was found to be accurate to within 80 feet just south of Hawaii (at the time there were only a few satellites in the system).

Over the years, GPS has been an incredible boon to safety globally and this taxpayer-funded system has provided over $1,700,000,000,000 in commercial trade. What, you thought this freebee from you the taxpayer was only made for the military? Well, until the U.S. military relinquished the “selective ability” constraints in 2020, GPS really didn’t have a future commercially — and then BOOM, it was everywhere — your smart phone, your car, your ability to stream TV — all these are dependent on the use of free GPS.

The problem with GPS is that it is no longer as secure as the military needs it to be. Since 2020 those government agencies have been inventing other navigational systems, mostly space-based. So have Russia. China, and India. There are vision-aided bolt-on systems that use space imagery to verify what the GPS is claiming as locations. There are star based navigation verification systems (first developed for the Blackbird spy planes that needed to automatically verify location using star charts). And there are even bio- and non-bio magnetic verification “scalar magnetometers” double checking the GPS readings.

And then there are two breakthroughs that will, in the coming decades, replace everything else.

First is Quantum sensors, which rely on ultraprecise quantum physics. In quantum gyroscopes, cold atoms act as waves and travel along two paths. These are excited by lasers that create (in each atom) two states at the same time — this is called superposition. As the gyro moves, the atoms’ states alter differently and the waves either agree or cancel each other out.

This creates an interference pattern which, when measured, allows acceleration and rotation to be measured. Quantum inertial navigation will be far more accurate for longer periods of time than GPS.

A weirder but interesting development is opportunistic navigation using Signals-of-Opportunity measurement (SoOP). Measuring the signals to and from satellites, measuring the doppler shift of those transmissions, SoOP allows navigation “piracy” — meaning they can track and navigate using any signal from anyone thereby preventing an enemy from jamming signals: you simply cannot jam every satellite’s signals.

Oh, and just one more weird spin off from CERN in Geneva… the U.S. Transportation Department is running White Rabbit. White Rabbit allows subnanosecond synchronization accuracy over all optical links used across all our standard telecom links. In short, you can’t expect signals reaching your devices to be accurate unless they are checked, and rechecked, for perfect timing. White Rabbit does this now for every navigational and telecom signal.

Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, now lives in New Mexico.