The main problem facing the director of the Russian space agency Roscosmo at the moment is explaining to the media why he is had defined “The first allRussian crew in many years” appeared on the International Space Station in suits in the colors of Ukraine. For now, Dmitry Rogozin tried to say that these are the colors of Bauman University, the university where they graduated. Second on the list of things to do, there could be another, more complicated issue to solve: Rogozin told Interfax agency today that the United States is considering disconnecting all of Russia from GPS systems: “The United States is considering disconnecting Russia from the GPS Global Positioning System as part of the sanctions. You know that? Or not. But I can tell you that the option is under review ».
So far, no confirmation has arrived from the United States, but in recent days it seems that problems with this technology have been detected on the borders between Russian and Finnish territories. This was reported by EASA, the European Aviation Safety Agency: “In the current context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the problem of interference and possible spoofing of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) in geographic areas surrounding the conflict zone has been exacerbated”. Jamming and spoofing are both satellite signal jamming techniques that are performed using different methods. It is not clear where these riots came from and who is causing them, but as the Business Insider newspaper also reconstructs, they have been recorded in several areas near Russia, including the Black Sea coasts.
How GPS works
GPS is the abbreviation for Global Positioning System. It is a military technology developed by the United States based on a system of 31 satellites that orbit the earth. developed since then 1973of the 1991 The White House has decided to open up this technology to civilian services as well. In recent years, however, similar systems with different properties have emerged. China has its Beidou positioning system active across Asia, the European Union is building its Galileo, while Russia has developed Glonass, an open military system in China 2007 for civil uses. According to Rogozin, this is exactly what will save Russian users: «We don’t have to worry because each of our smartphones is connected to Glonass. If the GPS is disconnected, Glonass will work. It has the same accuracy as GPS. Everything will be fine”. Until a few years ago, it was difficult to find smartphones that connected to this network, but now there are actually quite a few. The question will be whether all Russian technology will adapt to this new system can.
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