Satellite Upgrades Planned
Apparently the US military is planning some impressive updates to their existing satellite technology. In an attempt to maintain their dominance in the GPS arena they will be launching 8 new satellites bringing the total active ‘birds’ to 32. This new system, GPS III, is slated to have 500 times the transmitting power which promises to give greater reliability and higher resistance to jamming. It will also offer second and third frequencies to contain civilian signal, more robust signal transmissions and provide 1 meter accuracy.
This news comes on the heels of a recent announcement from the European Union that they have included 3.5 billion dollars in their budget for deployment of their Galileo project. Galileo is the global navigation system to be built by the European Union as an alternative to the US and Russian navigation systems. The system is to be operational by 2011-12.
For more in-depth information check out the following links:
US Plans GPS Satellite Navigation Upgrade
Wikipedia - Galileo Positioning System
The next few years look promising as these new systems come online. We especially like the sound of the ‘1 meter accuracy’. If this keeps up we’ll happily embrace those dreaded micro caches! 
Keep on cachin’!
