Tuesday December 27, 2011
The Big Dipper:
China's GPS Rival Goes Online
China's alternative to GPS, Beidou (meaning Big Dipper), has been activated for trial usage.
As well as civilian uses, Beidou has potential military applications.
From BBC News:
A 2004 study by Geoffrey Forden, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, suggested that Beidou could be used to target cruise missiles against Taiwan if a war broke out over the territory. Having its own system would protect China against the risk that the US could turn GPS off.
Posted in: Science by bubblejam at 09:30 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry