You need very, very precise and accurate clock for GPS. The better the clock the better the location can be determined. There is no way current one web sats would have accurate enough clocks.
So it sounds like the precise timing is what is limiting the existing OneWeb satellites from being a GNSS system.It seems like with normal GPS the receiver can sync its clock to the very accurate atomic clocks on the GPS satellites by comparing the different satellite signals.I don't see why the OneWeb satellites couldn't use the same approach. The OneWeb satellites could get the precise time by syncing their clocks with the GPS satellites, and then use that to broadcast their own GNSS signal. This would mean that OneWeb wouldn't be independent from GPS, but it would be more useful since it would work indoors and in urban canyons. The stronger signal can also be more resilient to jamming . Perhaps this is what the Financial Times article meant about it being a "complement" to GPS.
Something a lot of people discussing the GNSS payload angle are missing is that this is one of the very things DARPA was looking at as part of their Blackjack program -- taking COTS megaconstellation spacecraft buses, and either replacing their primary payload, or adding a secondary payload that was of a military nature. PNT (Position/Navigation/Timing) was one of the payloads they had been looking at that could make sense in a distributed LEO environment. OneWeb Satellites was one of the companies they were already working with on the concept. I can't remember all of the other paylaods they had looked at, but I think earth observation, space based missile/hypersonics tracking, and secure military comms were some of the other ones. So I guess my point is, that it may not be *that* far-fetched that OWS had figured out a credible plan for making a variant on their buses that had a PNT payload (that would include the price clock and transmitter) either in lieu of, or in addition to the primary comms payload.Ultimately, it remains to be seen what happens, and whether this consortium pans out (and who else is part of it, and what their plans are), but I think writing this off at this point is premature. Let's see what happens.~Jon
Maybe i'm confused... one web is an internet satellite constellation more like starlink... not for global positioning so can it even be repurposed for gps? Either way its bad news for astronomers amp.theguardian.com/politics/2020/…
This makes no sense for many other reasons too. They don’t actually have spectrum priority, they have shared spectrum & nothing about this company is UK, except post office box. Money would be better spent on actual UK satellite industry!
'We've bought the wrong satellites': UK tech gamble baffles expertsBid for 20% of OneWeb to replace Galileo after Brexit ‘looks like nationalism trumping industrial policy’Alex HernThe UK government’s plan to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in a satellite broadband company has been described as “nonsensical” by experts, who say the company doesn’t even make the right type of satellite the country needs after Brexit.The investment in OneWeb, first reported on Thursday night, is intended to mitigate against the UK losing access to the EU’s Galileo satellite navigation system.But OneWeb – in which the UK will own a 20% stake following the investment – currently operates a completely different type of satellite network from that typically used to run such navigation systems....
twitter.com/space_mog/status/1276506132127907842Quote Maybe i'm confused... one web is an internet satellite constellation more like starlink... not for global positioning so can it even be repurposed for gps? Either way its bad news for astronomers amp.theguardian.com/politics/2020/…https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1276566880161984513Quote This makes no sense for many other reasons too. They don’t actually have spectrum priority, they have shared spectrum & nothing about this company is UK, except post office box. Money would be better spent on actual UK satellite industry!
Quote from: FutureSpaceTourist on 06/26/2020 05:54 pmtwitter.com/space_mog/status/1276506132127907842Quote Maybe i'm confused... one web is an internet satellite constellation more like starlink... not for global positioning so can it even be repurposed for gps? Either way its bad news for astronomers amp.theguardian.com/politics/2020/…https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1276566880161984513Quote This makes no sense for many other reasons too. They don’t actually have spectrum priority, they have shared spectrum & nothing about this company is UK, except post office box. Money would be better spent on actual UK satellite industry!I think this is disingenuous on Elon's part. Isn't SpaceX also participating in DARPA Blackjack? If so, he'd know that one of their focuses is on the idea of making variants of telecom megaconstellation satellites that allows them to host military payloads, including PNT ones...If I'm reading this correctly, they're probably talking about continuing to build out the OneWeb telecomms constellation while building a derivative satellite that reuses many of the same bus hardware but with a PNT payload in it that would then be part of the overall constellation. There are details to make this work, but I don't think that would be implausible at all.It'd be easier to do if they had ISLs though.~Jon
For the record, I had a post here previously which criticised the government's motives for this deal and questioned the technical feasibility. Apparently that's not allowed....
It started getting quite political, leading to comparisons of whether the UK or US government was dumber, which is not a road this thread really needs to go down
It started getting quite political, leading to comparisons of whether the UK or US government was dumber, which is not a road this thread really needs to go downedit: I removed more than one post, oftentimes I'll also remove a post that led to a derailment even if it wasn't the worst of the bunch
Quote from: gongora on 06/26/2020 08:01 pmIt started getting quite political, leading to comparisons of whether the UK or US government was dumber, which is not a road this thread really needs to go downedit: I removed more than one post, oftentimes I'll also remove a post that led to a derailment even if it wasn't the worst of the bunchIt's going to be hard to discuss a move which is solely and exclusively politically motivated without getting political.
