Satellites are essential to modern life. So essential, in fact, that plans have been drawn up on how to cope with a situation in which we could no longer rely on them. A UK government document entitled the Space Weather Preparedness Strategy may sound strange, but when so much of modern communications, transport and the financial system relies on satellites, you can imagine why one would want a Plan B in place.
The reality is that we depend on satellites in more ways than we realise. The concept was popularised in a 1945 letter to Wireless World written by science fiction writer and inventor Arthur C Clarke – and from then satellite services has grown into an industry worth US$100 billion a year.
This highlights the extent to which satellite services pervade modern life. A fleet of several hundred communications satellites encircles our planet in geosynchronous Earth-orbit, with hundreds more at lower altitudes. Rapid satellite communications enable the global markets underpinning our economy, and the emergency and defence services that keep society safe. Satellites provide GPS global navigation services for transport on land, sea and in the air. Modern agriculture, manufacturing and logistics chains, that supply virtually everything you consume – from the milk in your coffee to the screen you're reading this on – rely on information provided by satellites.
But you'd be forgiven for never noticing some of the subtle influences of satellite technology on your life. After all, who'd have thought that some trains use GPS data to control which doors open at platforms of different lengths? Or that banks uses high-precision timing of satellite navigation systems to time-stamp its financial transactions?
We could survive without satellites, but their influence and benefits are so widespread that it would require concerted effort and massive investment to do so. Which has led some to consider the risks satellites face, and what to do about them.
One threat is the impact of "space weather". This can be solar flares – powerful bursts of radiation – or explosions of high-speed, high-energy protons ejected from the sun which scythe their way though near-Earth space. During periods of disturbed space weather, the region circling the Earth's equator, the Van Allen radiation belt, swells with greater numbers of high-energy subatomic charged particles.
These can disrupt satellite operations by depositing electrical charge within the on-board electronics, triggering phantom commands or overloading and damaging sensitive components. The effects of space weather on the Earth's upper atmosphere disrupts radio signals transmitted by navigation satellites, potentially introducing positioning errors or, in more severe cases, rendering them unusable.
These are not theoretical hazards: in recent decades, solar storms have caused outages for a number of satellites services – and a handful of satellites have been lost altogether. These were costly events – satellite operator losses have run into hundreds of millions of dollars. The wider social and economic impact was relatively limited, but even so it's unclear how our growing amount of space infrastructure would fare against the more extreme space weather that we might face.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @12:16PM
I cannot imagine which advantage it should have if trains use GPS data as main source for deciding on the number of doors. I mean, it's not as if the train could go anywhere it wants; it is bound to follow the track, with switches as the only points where there's any decision where to go, and even there' it's not the train that decides (and hopefully there's some communication with the train about how the switch is switched).
I've also read on SN that some data centers use GPS for setting their time. What's the point of that? There are perfectly fine terrestrial time signals, which have the additional advantage that the sender is at a fixed position, so you don't have to do any variable position calculations to get the correct time. Given that data centers don't tend to move around, I really don't see the point of using GPS here.
(Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Monday August 03 2015, @12:29PM
You will know about 100-150 ms in advance of the incoming Armageddon and may put a sell order ahead of the rest.
4. profit
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by miljo on Monday August 03 2015, @12:55PM
You will know about 100-150 ms in advance of the incoming Armageddon and may put a sell order ahead of the rest.
Sad but true.
One should strive to achieve, not sit in bitter regret.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @05:16PM
If I'm setting up a data center, particularly a big one, why wouldn't I want a local time server? It is trivial to get an appliance that runs an ntp server off of GPS. I have no idea what time synchronization requirements are for a decent sized data center, if any, but it is cheap and trivial to set up your own that I don't know why I wouldn't want to.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday August 03 2015, @07:17PM
You think that NTP and GPS are the only sources for time?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday August 03 2015, @07:59PM
Depends on how accurate and how standardized you need the time to be. Personally, if it were easy I'd set up my computer to syn to NTP time once a day...or perhaps once a week. I've noticed that if I don't sync regularly my clock time tends to drift. But I don't have any need that's even approximately critical.
FWIW, I suspect that my ntp synchronization is once a day...but I haven't checked that in a few years.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday August 03 2015, @08:08PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_clock#List_of_radio_time_signal_stations [wikipedia.org]
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Monday August 03 2015, @12:21PM
In the case of more extreme space weather, I'm afraid that satellites may be the last of our problems, being overshadowed by the loss of SN (and it will be serious, not just a momentary failure to load the CSS). If you don't believe me, see the Carrington event [wikipedia.org]:
What's SN contingency plan for such events?
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Anne Nonymous on Monday August 03 2015, @01:45PM
> more extreme space weather
Caused by global warming, presumably.
(Score: 3, Informative) by wonkey_monkey on Monday August 03 2015, @12:38PM
With So Much Vested in Satellites, Solar Storms Could Bring Everyday Life to a Standstill
That'd be nice. I could go to the beach.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Monday August 03 2015, @04:12PM
When technology fails people wait for technology to come save them. That is when there is standing still*. As people realize they will not be saved by anyone except themselves attitudes change, plans are formed and civility goes out the door.
For an excellent take on technology as a trap watch the first episode of "Connections." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078588/ [imdb.com]
Hopefully I will either get enough notice to get home or it will be night time so the other side of the earth will get blasted instead of me.
*of course there are other less civil people who immediately go steal TVs waiting for the power to come back.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday August 03 2015, @06:47PM
I'm affraid the magnetosphere and Van Allen belt doesn't work this way - see some brief explanations with diagrams [tufts.edu] - your computer will fry even on the night side due to the currents induced by the variations in the magnetic field.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by mendax on Monday August 03 2015, @07:51PM
You can watch the first episode of Connections here [youtube.com].
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 04 2015, @08:14PM
yeah, i've posted about this before without any sort of prompt from a 'researcher' or 'book author'. just using common sense. we are too dependent on satellites. space 'weather' is not the only concern. how do you defend a vital piece of infrastructure in space from an attack? currently, you can't. let me leap-frog past any suggestions of arming satellites with lasers (for defensive purposes lol) or developing gee-whiz anti-missile tech...how do you protect a satellite from someone on the ground firing a powerful laser or some other directed energy weapon? you can't. luckily, an earth-to-satellite directed energy weapon would be incredibly expensive to build and operate. it would probably get noticed from space while being built. how do you know there aren't any sort of directed energy weapons in other satellites put up by other countries? you don't. even if you did, one could just send up lots of satellites for redundancy and command some unnecessary ones to kamakasi into enemy satellites.
satellites are great. we just depend on them TOO much for infrastructure. high-altitude, dirigible-stations (like those being looked at by tech companies to spread the internet) are the future and far wiser. fast and cheap to build and deploy - which makes redundancy and recovery from destructive events almost painless.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Monday August 03 2015, @07:39PM
I could draw upon the wad of cash I have in my safe and ride a bicycle around! And my house has solar panels. I could charge my car battery during the day and run my computers and a few lights off it at night using an A/C inverter. Who needs Internet? I have lots of real books! I can be happy as a clam.... until the food runs out. Then I will be forced to eat my housemate and his cats.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2015, @09:41PM
It's all fun and games until your glasses break, Burgess Meredith!
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday August 04 2015, @02:13AM
My motorcycle has a carburetor. No computer.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by mendax on Tuesday August 04 2015, @02:30AM
So does mine. But you will need gasoline to run it. In any case, unless your motorcycle is very old, there is a computer in a little computer in there somewhere running the gauges. Mine is from 2002 and it has one.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday August 06 2015, @12:23AM
1982 Yamaha XJ650R Seca. The gauges are purely mechanical. I could probably convert it to run on alcohol, wood-gas, or natural gas or something like that.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by mendax on Thursday August 06 2015, @03:58AM
2002 Suzuki Bandit 1200S. Computer runs the gauges but no fuel injection or smog shit for it to run. Unfortunately, the bike is in the shop. The damage caused by the idiot who rear-ended me in June has been fixed but it's now getting some overdue maintenance done, including a much needed carburetor rebuild. The damage done to me, however, is taking its sweet time to heal up.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday August 06 2015, @04:46AM
Ouch. My engine guards and handlebar ends show some abrasive damage, but I haven't been rear-ended (yet!) I was glad I was wearing decent gear. My right handlebar is bent down a smidge, but that works well with my bum shoulder. I got the bike for $650, replaced the fuse box, rebuilt the carbs, replaced brake pads, and surface ground my valve shims back into spec. Thinking about making some new carb boots since mine are cracked and buying them is a bit expensive. I figure machine a Delrin mold and use a two-part chemical resistant silicone. If it works well then I can undercut the competition and make a little money.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by mendax on Thursday August 06 2015, @05:58AM
You should see the ding the impact of my head on the pavement made on my helmet. The concussion and whiplash continue to improve. Oh, and I bought the Bandit new.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Tuesday August 04 2015, @05:51AM
I still have my sextant, sight reduction tables and astral almanac as well as a decent collection of paper charts of the entire Pacific and Indian Oceans. I did OK before SatNav and GPS before 1980, so I can handle no satellite navigation.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--