What Was GPS First Used For?

GPS has become commonplace enough to almost be called a commodity item. An acronym for the Global Positioning System, GPS is a technological marvel that lets people determine their location virtually anywhere in the world with a high degree of accuracy. This technology, originally conceived and developed for military applications, is now regularly available for consumers on portable units carried by campers and hikers, installed in automobiles, and available on cell phones.

Identification

The Global Positioning System had its beginnings in the satellite navigation system known as TRANSIT in the late 1950s. Originally developed by scientists at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University as a means of directing the United States Navy's submarine fleet, TRANSIT technology was the precursor to the current GPS system.

Function

In the early 1960s, the United States Air Force, the United States Navy, and the United States Army launched navigational satellites known as TRANSIT, SECOR and TIMATION. The Department of Defense established the Navigation Satellite Executive Committee in 1968 in an effort to coordinate the resources of these unique satellite navigation groups.

Time Frame

In 1973, the efforts of the competing military navigational satellite systems was consolidated into a unified program. A system was proposed that would place 24 navigational satellites into specific orbits to provide reference points for receivers on earth making it possible to accurately determine location. At that time the program was known as NAVSTAR.

Considerations

Professor Bradford Parkinson and Ivan Getting are credited with being co-inventors of the GPS system. The concept was originally conceived by Getting, who in the 1950s was VP of research and engineering at Raytheon Corporation. Professor Parkinson was the first manager of the NAVSTAR GPS Joint Program Office in the mid-1970s. Parkinson was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his work on the GPS system.

Features

The Global Positioning System was originally used by the U.S. military as a missile guidance system. In the early 1980s, the system was made available to commercial aircraft. In 1993, the system was declared to be no longer in the developmental stage, and the GPS system was approved for civilian use. Today GPS is used by governmental agencies for air traffic control, by commercial endeavors for tracking and routing trucks, and by civilians to find directions to the nearest restaurant.

Resources

• Radio Shack GPS Tutorial