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The U.S. government apparently places commercial restrictions on the kind technology that makes this kind of wonderful technology (and possibly scientific) inno
by taylorbuley 14y ago
The U.S. government apparently places commercial restrictions on the kind technology that makes this kind of wonderful technology (and possibly scientific) innovation possible for the everyman. For example, a rocket enthusiast once told me that any GPS chip sold on the commercial market can't function past Mach 1. Sad to think that even with basically quotidian materials now putting space in reach of the common man, during my lifetime it will still be an alien thing and the business of billionaires.
- ohazi 14y agoIt's 1000 knots and 60,000 ft, and this is only to meet U.S. ITAR export requirements. There's nothing inherent about the civilian GPS signal itself that prevents you from computing a fix beyond those limits. For example, you could buy one of these: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10981 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10981 and then design a baseband yourself. I'm currently aware of at least three people that are working on this or have already done it. You'll need to actually take the time to learn how GPS works, and it'll probably take you about a year, but it's definitely possible.
- spiritplumber 14y agoIt's called COCOM limit (historical reasons), and you can have it turned off at the factory if you can talk them into it / have a valid reason to. Oddly enough "we want to send up a small satellite, and we are calling from a NASA facility" was not a good enough reason. Surprisingly GPS will work decentish in LEO, if you can get past that. The GPS satellites are in semisynchronous orbit.