The growing strength of the Russian Glonass satellite positioning system was on show in St Petersburg recently. Speaking at the International Satellite Navigation conference in the city last week, Anatoly Shilov, Roscosmos deputy head, told journalists that 'enlargement of the Russian Glonass constellation provide the system with characteristics similar to those of the GPS'.
He said the capabilities of Glonass and GPS would gradually become comparable. ‘Unfortunately, our constellation was incomplete. Now we are in the process of enlarging it. As we do so, its accuracy, accessibility and reliability will improve,' he told Interfax-AVN.
In the years immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Glonass was allowed to decay. As satellites failed on orbit, they were not replaced.
However in recent years with the resurgence of Russian ambition in space, the constellation has been rebuilt and will probably have the same number of satellites on-orbit as the GPS by the end of 2010 or early 2011.
While combined GPS and Glonass units are now commonplace in professional surveying, Glonass has yet to make a dent on consumer equipment. The Russians have made no secret of their ambition to create a consumer electronics industry on the back of Glonass, but there is no sign yet that Russian companies are ready to challenge the big US and European multinationals.
Shilov is optimistic about the ability of the next generation of satellites to improve Glonass even more. The satellites will be lighter, which offers the opportunity to reduce launch expenses. In addition, their lifetime in orbit is 10 years, which is 3 years more than the current generation of Glonass-M satellites.
Source: www.asmmag.com
