Privatizing the GPS

	The space program will be far more cost-effective if it is carried
out on a larger scale. The best way to increase its scale is for new
applications to pay the costs of their use of space facilities. The best
current example is the communication satellite.

	Another important source of space income is the Global Positioning
System of some 28 satellites originally developed for military purposes.
It enables any suitable receiver to determine its position within a few
yards.  Actually the information required for accurate location is
encrypted, and the unencrypted facility is less accurate, but it is
turning out that good enough equipment can get the accurate positioning
without being provided with the code.

	The global positioning system has clear civilian applications, and
these users should pay their share of its costs.  This is specially
important when the Government budget is under such strain.

	While airplanes and ships will be the first civilian applications,
the cost of GPS receiver can readily come down to the point where the
largest application will be in the world's 300 million cars.

	A driver with a GPS receiver in will see his position on his
dashboard accurate to a few yards.  Having been told the location of his
destination, he can avoid getting lost. Fancier systems with maps in the
memory of the car computer will show him his position on a map of the
region.

	Like all innovations GPS will be expensive at first.  Enthusiasts
for the new will buy receivers first.  One imagines that car rental
agencies will be quick to offer them, because their clients are often
unfamiliar with the area.  Eventually, you won't be able to buy a used car
without GPS.

	A licensing fee of $100 per receiver will repay half the $8
billion cost of the system when 40 million cars have bought it, and after
80 million cars have it, the whole cost will be repaid.  Note that this 8
billion dollar return amounts to the entire projected cost of the initial
version of the manned space station.

	To this end, we need to move toward a proprietary decryption
system that can be licensed worldwide.  The best way to do this is to turn
the management of the system over to a suitably organized private
corporation along the lines of Comsat.  Since the Government has built the
system, it should initially own most of the stock and gradually sell it
off.

	Suitable laws and agreements can preserve the military
capabilities of the system including the ability to turn it off or further
encrypt the date in case of national emergency.

	John McCarthy