ISRO recently finished India’s very own desi gps constellation called IRNSS. IRNSS stands for Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System .Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi named it NavIC . It stands for Navigation in Indian Constellation. He did so to honor the fishermen/boatmen of the country . GPS is relatively old but has its huge advantages .Which one is better , GPS or NavIC ? lets find out.
A Video on the same in Hindi .
What is NavIC ?
NavIC consists of 9 launches . IRNSS 1A to IRNSS 1I . IRNSS-A’s atomic clocks ended up failing . These clocks were imported from the European Space Agency ( ESA ). ESA too had its own failures. ISRO has now decided to develop its own Atomic clocks and will be in orbit in December . Read more about it here .
IRNSS 1H was launched to compensate for IRNSS 1A but the launch ended up failing . The launch failed because of a Pyro failure . Few months ago ISRO launched the final satellite IRNSS 1I which completed the constellation. This means now there are 8 satellites in orbit ,7 of them working for Navigation. 3 Satellites are in geostationary orbit , whereas 4 are in a Geosynchronous orbit .
IRNSS-1E propellant filling operation in progress. Credits :ISRO
lets begin the comparison on these specifications.
Resolution or Accuracy of GPS and NavIC
GPS has a resolution of 20 m for the public .
NavIC also has a resolution of 20 m for the public .
However to note is that both the systems accuracy can be improved with cellular. accuracy can come close to 10 m or less with cellular . Google maps uses the same method to improve accuracy in its application .Both of them have a restricted mode which is used by the respective defense forces for Navigation . NavIC is said to have a ~1 m accuracy for defense purposes according to reports . The accuracy for defense purposes on GPS is not known .
Both happen to be close on this specification .
India’s most powerfull rocket the GSLV MK3 , Currently undergoing development tests .
Coverage
GPS as the name says is a Global Positioning System.
NavIC on the other hand serves only India and its neighboring countries . if reports are to be believed , accuracy is far better in the neighboring countries . Although it might seem like NavIC has lost this round , it doesn’t .We will talk about this later in the article.
Satellites
GPS has 33 satellites as of 22 June 2018 and the US Govt. is constantly adding and replacing old satellites . Most of the satellites are in a medium-ish ( technically incorrect word ) kind of orbit.
NavIC has 7 satellites with more to be added soon . The number of satellites might seem very less here but they are exclusive to the India .Seems like a win for GPS on the specification front . Now lets forget specifications and visualize from a Indian perspective .
GPS vs NavIC – an Indian perspective . How NavIC is better than GPS
- Of course the coverage is less than GPS but it is not meant to be global but NavIC is not meant to be global .NavIC was built to satisfy the needs of Indians .To provide support for the deference services , transport and the general public .
- NavIC should in theory be more reliable simple because we always have a line of sight with the satellites .
- Satellites are always in line of sight of the devices using the system.
- Since NavIC Stallites are in geostationary orbit , signals can be obtained even in steep valleys or canyons .
Drawbacks of NavIC
- Coverage is limited if you take global presence into account.
- signals might take relatively more time considering satellites are in Geostationary orbit ( ~36000 km).
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