Quote:
Originally Posted by natehale1971
With this kind of coverage, it's very possible that GPS (or it's equivalents) could still be operating in the Cannon Twilight 2000 timeline.
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Not a chance I'm afraid.
The GPS satellites require almost constant updating of their internal clocks due to "time dilation". Basically time runs slower in space than it does here on earth (yes, this has been scientifically proven believe it or not), and without the ground stations updating them at least daily, they rapidly become totally useless as navigation markers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacetime
The difference may only be tiny fractions of a second but that can translate to tens, even hundreds of metres of error accumulating daily without the ground station updates.
Spread that over a year to say mid to late 1998 and GPS might tell you what town you're near, but don't even think about trying to do anything that requires precision such as calling artillery.
Then there's the small issue of needing at least three satellites for a decent fix. With each satellite out of whack so to speak, errors could be compounded even more. Also given that many may well have been knocked out during the war for a variety of reasons, and that they only work when in line of sight, you might get only a few minutes every day of enough satellites over your head.