Global Positioning System-the newest utility

Volume

15

Issue

10

fYear

2000

Firstpage

89

Lastpage

95

Abstract

The Global Positioning System (GPS) has become the high tech utility of the 20th century. It was developed by the US Department of Defense as a precise navigation reference for the military services. Although the signal available to civilian users had been purposely degraded in what is called selective availability (SA), it is one of a few technological success stories that had positive unintended consequences. Recent announcements indicate that this SA impediment has been removed. GPS currently has a huge civilian market in commercial and private aviation, ship navigation, mapping and surveying, telecommunications position determination, and recreational boating and hiking. By 2003 sales of GPS based products are expected to be $16 billion.

Keywords

Global Positioning System; technological forecasting; GPS code; GPS satellites; Global Positioning System; civilian market; commercial aviation; differential GPS; high tech utility; mapping; private aviation; recreational activities; selective availability removal; ship navigation; surveying; telecommunications position determination; triangulation; Extraterrestrial measurements; Global Positioning System; IEEE news; Marine vehicles; Radio navigation; Satellite broadcasting; Satellite navigation systems; Space exploration; Space technology; Time measurement;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0885-8985

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/62.879425

Filename

879425