The Global
Positioning System (GPS)
is a space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time
information in all weather conditions, anywhere on or near the Earth where
there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. The
system provides critical capabilities to military, civil and commercial users
around the world. It is maintained by the United States government and is
freely accessible to anyone with a GPS receiver.
The GPS
project was developed in 1973 to overcome the limitations of previous
navigation systems,[1]integrating ideas from several predecessors,
including a number of classified engineering design studies from the 1960s. GPS
was created and realized by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and was originally run with
24 satellites. It became fully operational in 1994. Roger L. Easton is
generally credited as its inventor.
Advances in
technology and new demands on the existing system have now led to efforts to
modernize the GPS system and implement the next generation of GPS III
satellites and Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX).[2] Announcements
from the Vice President and the White House in 1998 initiated these changes. In
2000, U.S. Congress authorized the modernization effort, GPS III.
In addition to
GPS, other systems are in use or under development. The Russian Global
Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) was developed contemporaneously
with GPS, but suffered from incomplete coverage of the globe until the
mid-2000s. There are also the planned European Union Galileo positioning system,
Chinese Compass navigation system,
and Indian Regional
Navigational Satellite System.
Abdulnasser Alkhuzaie
20055939
Post NO.4
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