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A Yahoo! search on "global positioning system" resulted in plenty of sources of information. Choosing the first web site match, we headed to a web page from the National Academies, an organization comprised of the National Academy of Science, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine -- all of which are private, non-profit, self-governing membership organizations. They share the responsibility of advising the federal government on questions of science and technology. The article that piqued our interest was titled, "The Global Positioning System: The Role of Atomic Clocks."
It explained that on June 26, 1993, the U.S. Air Force launched the 24th Navstar satellite into orbit, completing a network of satellites known as the Global Positioning System. However, this new navigation technology was not invented by one person, but was a result of advances in the fields of engineering and science. Our next stop was Trimble, a company that claims to be "a leading innovator of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology." We learned that the U.S. Department of Defense developed GPS for use at sea during the Cold War. The military needed a way to pinpoint the exact positions of surfaced nuclear submarines in a matter of minutes. Developing such a system wasn't cheap! According to the
folks at Trimble, the final cost of developing the GPS was $12 billion. The Trimble site provides a fascinating look at how the system actually works. Don't miss the outstanding tutorial -- it should answer all your GPS-related questions.
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