Everything from insurance premiums to satellite navigation systems now rely on them.
He said it was compatible with the world's other major global satellite navigation systems, and encouraged Chinese and foreign enterprises to help develop terminals that could use the Chinese network.
The government wants to require the biggest of them to buy fishing licences, certify the size of their catches and, in some cases, deploy on-board satellite navigation systems to let the authorities keep an eye on them.
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While long on trivia, Amazon's statement was short on specifics, noting that all the GPS units it sold this season would make a trail from New York to Philadelphia, which would be a terrible way to use satellite navigation systems to find one's way around.
By unleashing a massive pulse of electromagnetic radiation sweeping over the planet, a severe solar storm could potentially knock out the electric power grid, silence radio and satellite communications and disrupt GPS navigation systems.
But scientists point to other technology developed from military systems, such as GPS satellite navigation, which has come down in price and is now increasingly popular.
The company hasn't said which handset will be used in the satellite, but they chose Android because it allows engineers to easily modify the phone to do their bidding -- from controlling pulse plasma thrusters to handling the advanced guidance and navigation systems of the foot long satellite.
ENGADGET: SSTL using Android handsets to control satellites, conquer the final frontier
But a solar storm has the potential to disrupt the shielding effect, and severe space weather can have harmful effects on a wide array of technological systems, including satellite operations, communications, navigation and electric power grids.
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Future systems will include navigation, paging, and even the ability to let passengers watch satellite-fed movies.
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