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| Origin of GPS - Global Positioning System - Times Falcon |
We tell you how the GPS system came out of the "top secret" category and became public.
Today, we see our ability to communicate with satellites that reveal the Global Positioning System as something very simple. However, in the first place, GPS was a highly classified military secret.
The impact of the Cold War
The U.S. military wanted to find anywhere in the world with a lot of certainty because of the Cold War. Thus, it would be possible to attack a desired point without errors. To achieve this goal, they put Ivan Getting, who has researched advanced 3D positional systems at Raytheon, in charge.
The first experiment, called Transit, consisted of only five communications satellites orbiting at a constant altitude (usually 20.18 km above the Earth's surface) and could be considered simple.
Placed at these carefully designated locations, the satellites were sending their time-coded signals to GPS receivers on Earth. When these signals were processed with some mathematical software, they allowed the receiver to determine its exact position on Earth. The entire system was tested by the U.S. Navy in the 1960s.
The right timing
In order to operate at maximum resolution, GPS satellites need to know the watch with exceptional accuracy. Unfortunately, the technology in first-generation GPS satellites failed to meet the wishes of engineers. Therefore, second-generation GPS satellites called Timation are equipped with atomic clocks specifically designed to work in space.
During the test, it turned out that these atomic clocks were very successful. So America came up with an update plan, and between 1978 and 1985, 11 Timation satellites were launched into orbit.
IPO
During this time period, the GPS program was completely under the control of the U.S. military and conducted in secrecy. But in one of the most tense moments during the Cold War, something changed the principles: in 1983, the USSR shot down Korean passenger plane 007. The plane, which was leaving New York and flying to Seoul via Anchorage, was shot down after it entered USSR airspace after successive aerial manoeuvres, triggered by a number of incidents triggered by the escalation of tensions.
America under Reagan began to discuss how to avoid such similar events in the future. As a result, it was decided to open the GPS system to civilian use, which includes vehicles in air transportation, ship transport and other forms of transport.
Restricted resolution
Of course, it was not surprising that there were a few limitations. Due to changes to the software that was made available to the general public, ordinary users were able to achieve significantly lower resolution than the military. Still, this resolution was enough to prevent planes and ships from entering foreign airspace and sea areas.
Over time, however, the limitations of technology have been lifted, and even today's ordinary users can pinpoint the accuracy of the American military during the Cold War.
Multi-use area
Since the Reagan administration's decision, GPS has become a staple vehicle for aircraft, ships and almost all motor vehicles around the world. GPS also has a very important role to play outside of transportation. We can sample them as astronomy, mapping, meteorology, earthquake research, post-disaster assistance, safety and photo tagging.
Today's GPS network consists of 30 active satellites, and thanks to technological advances, the cost of GPS receivers has dropped by up to a few pounds. This means that almost every smartphone now has GPS capability. Thus, we can take advantage of many location-based applications and play augmented reality and treasure hunting games.
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