Indian-Origin Researcher Invents Satellite-Free Navigation System Which Uses Earth’s

[Ninurta]

I would be really interested to learn the details of this. I agree, current GPS is too vulnerable and way to integrated into everyday life. I've know people who will not drive a mile anywhere without their GPS telling them where to go. 

Although, this could be one of those Darwin opportunities. 

Ask the "nav generation" what resection is if you want to short-circuit their brains.

Cheers

Like you, I come form the "paper map and compass" generation. GPS is a convenience, but not a necessity.

When GPS was first released to the public, it had something called "selective availability", where military users got more precise (by a magnitude of 10, as I recall) coordinates than anyone else got. They turned that off in the late 90's, but I bet it is still available to be turned back on if necessary. The problem is, if they turn it back on, a lot of aircraft and sea vessels that depend on precise location coordinates would be in a world of hurt.

Alternatively, the Russians have their GLONASS GPS constellation operational. There are receivers out there that can use either one.

A potential problem I see with this magnetic scheme is that the poles are shifting, and accelerating in their shift. Right now, the North magnetic Pole is galloping towards Siberia from the Canadian Ungava Bay, and picking up speed as it goes. That means that, in order for it to be accurate, one would have to have "anchor stations" set up to feed corrections to the receiving equipment to account for that magnetic pole shift. Kinda like the declination diagrams on paper maps, but in real time instead of 10 or 20 year updates. Those stations would be subject to the same vulnerabilities, and more, as the GPS satellites are. "More" because being ground based would mean more potential attackers could access them physically, even "non-state actors" like, but not limited to, the likes of al Qaeda and ISIS.

Another potential pitfall is "magnetic anomalies" that cause the magnetic field to fluctuate locally, due to things like mineral deposits. Not such a problem with a map and compass, as you are only locating in at most two dimensions - azimuth and distance - and to eyeball precision, +/- about half a degree with a standard lensatic compass. Map features help you refine that as you go. Locating in 3 dimensions - X and Y for MGRS, with elevation thrown in as the third dimension - to a precision of a few meters, however, could throw a wrench in the works.

I like my GPS, but am not dependent upon it if the chips are down. Matter of fact, I've been hunting for a new dual-system GPS/ GLONASS receiver. Handheld receivers like the old PLGRs are getting hard to find. The "nav generation" seems to prefer the ones with pretty pictures instead of coordinate readouts that you can set on the dash of your car, and manufacturers are concentrating on those to keep the yuppies happy.

The problem is, I sometimes go where cars can't, where the pretty pictures are useless embellishments, and where the maps say "Here There Be Dragons".

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