NavList:

Dave,

I agree that power is an issue, but for the moment let's set that aside and just suppose hypothetically that we can do it. All technical problems have been solved. Now what? An orbiting jammer like that would be instantly detected and tracked. In fact, it would be closely tracked even before it's activated. While people don't like to discuss it, anti-satellite tecnology is an established capability for the US, Russia, and also China. A jammer satellite would be disabled or destroyed immediately.

Put yourself (hypothetically!) in the shoes of the space warfare planners for a rogue nation that has the capability to orbit a space jammer. Why waste vast resources on a sitting duck? Wouldn't you be better off with a direct assault on the GNSS satellites themselves? Better yet, just threaten them. Park "space mines" a short distance from any ten GPS satellites. Then issue your demands... Unforunately for your career in space warfare, this will probably be considered an act of war by the threatened nation. And then we're brought back to a more obvious scenario: GNSS systems will be targeted in a major war.

Frank Reed
Conanicut Island USA

PS: For anyone reading along who is starting to get annoyed: Yes, this is moving off-topic, and yes, I am aware of it, and yes, we should wind this down soon. That's "soon"... not right away.