Satellites

[Viking233]

When we fire up our quad we look to see how many satellites its reading. It could be 10 maybe 12 or 15 and sometimes even more. It seems these signals can be received no matter where you are in the world. Does anyone ever wonder just how many satellites there are in this area around our globe. I mean are there thousands? Or just hundreds?. When you quad is reading 14 could it be that while your flying in New Hampshire that a few of the satellites are over the area of the Pacific? What powers these satellites. Do they have AAA or AA batteries. Maybe they are LIPO's! Hmmm maybe it is solar, that makes sense. How is it that the same satellites can monitor every single car with GPS in addition to all the other GPS dependant pieces of equipment. Doesn't it ever overheat? Is there actually any heat in outer space?
My weird mind thinks about these things. Does anyone else think this too or am I the only crazy women or guy.

 

[Rayray]

Yes.

 

[vr-pilot]

When we fire up our quad we look to see how many satellites its reading. It could be 10 maybe 12 or 15 and sometimes even more. It seems these signals can be received no matter where you are in the world. Does anyone ever wonder just how many satellites there are in this area around our globe. I mean are there thousands? Or just hundreds?. When you quad is reading 14 could it be that while your flying in New Hampshire that a few of the satellites are over the area of the Pacific? What powers these satellites. Do they have AAA or AA batteries. Maybe they are LIPO's! Hmmm maybe it is solar, that makes sense. How is it that the same satellites can monitor every single car with GPS in addition to all the other GPS dependant pieces of equipment. Doesn't it ever overheat? Is there actually any heat in outer space?
My weird mind thinks about these things. Does anyone else think this too or am I the only crazy women or guy.

Wow, you really broke your head about things that others already solved for you.
Global Positioning System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
But I like the way of trying to find answers yourself instead of just understanding what is written in the books. In the end finding own answers is the only way to find out something new!
Anyway: always interesting to understand what makes drone flying in the end so easy, and why it sometimes can be difficult just because of the same reasons. Like e.g. long waiting times for GPS locking...

 

[Viking233]

Of course my questions were ones of wonderment, intrigue and let's not forget humor. I did take a look at Wikipedia and 5 minutes into reading I realized that I really didn't care about all this technical stuff. I think most people have no clue how GPS works nor do most people really care. All you need to know is that it provides a very accurate coordinate on a given location. How that happens! Who cares, right. So that being said, do you know the answer to the question. I think I read there are 24 of them. If that's true how is it that it provide all this accurate info to billions of GPS devises. It must have moving parts yes? Do they wear out?

 

[dstephens]

The great world of GPS.. I used to think there was a satellite for every area but then when I really got into geocaching and hiking and needed to actually learn about orienteering I actually learned a lot about GPS and glonass.. I actually even took a 4 hour class about how it worked.. Very interesting stuff