GPS: Global Positioning System

It is my pleasure to be able to write a lot about science fiction and science fact. This topic happens to be one where the first time I was talking about it, it was science fiction, and now it has become science fact! May many other of my SCI Fi topics do the same! LOL! It's going to be great to report about the latest flying cars and manned missions to Mars! :~)



The GPS system was science fiction to the US government and then it became fact. Later it became fact for all of the rest of us and today has become common place. Receivers are ubiquitous and new ways to utilize transmitters and receivers are popping up every day! It has followed the same path that digital watches and calculators, computers and cell phones did.

It started out extremely expensive and then through further research and development and large marketing campaigns prices came down and it's availability snowballed on itself and it became a part of every day life.

The GPS system is composed of a group of 24 satellites circling the earth at over 12,000 miles up, that transmit precise microwave signals. The system enables a GPS receiver to determine its location, speed, direction, and time. The signals travel at near the speed of light, and since the speed is known then the distances to them can be calculated precisely. The same as if you know a spot is 60 miles away and it takes you one hour to get there, you can calculate the speed as 60 mph. If you know any 2 of the speed, time, or distance then you can calculate the third one.

When you receive signals form 3 or more satellites then your exact location can be triangulated and displayed on a screen. I believe that if there are 4 or more satellites involved you can also calculate your elevation. This can be useful in a number of applications, but one of the most unique is that volcanologist put GPS receivers on their equipment on volcanoes and receive the info from them remotely to see if a volcanoes is growing, therefore, needing some more immediate attention. Volcanoes can get a little grouchy sometimes if you don't pay enough attention to them. :~)

GPS receivers have already been integrated into cars, planes boats, ships and even wristwatches! You don't have to wonder where you are any more, and that fact has doubtless been involved in saving hundreds and thousands of lives, as well as improving commerce in many ways.

They have been working on, and are now bringing to market, GPS devices to attach to or insert in your pets, children and cars so that if they get lost you can find them right away. It may end up being common for children and pets to have a chip implanted under their skin at birth, and if car, boat and plane thieves know that the police might be knocking on the door as soon as the arrive at their hide outs and turn off the ignition, it could be a deterrent in thefts.

Researchers are using GPS to track wildlife for their management and our future benefit.

The world is shrinking, so you can't hide anywhere anymore! But with so many neat gadgets showing up, why would you want to hide! :~)

GPS is even being used to track the movement of the tectonic plates, ( the plates that travel over the earth's core and the continents sit on), of the earth to help better predict earthquakes. It is almost as if we have developed a great big microscope to put the whole world under and all we have to do is figure out to best utilize it! Considering what they have come up with already I am sure there is going to be a lot of innovative, amazing things incorporating GPS.

It's only been a little over 10 years since In 1996, President Bill Clinton recognizing the importance of GPS to civilian users as well as military users and issued a policy directive declaring GPS to be a dual-use system and establishing a government executive board to manage it as a national asset.

Where will GPS go in the future? That's anyone's guess. But considering what a huge transformation it has made in knowing one's location and smoothly getting from point A to B, I am guessing we have only just begun to see a lot of wondrous things from this technology!

Thank you,

Dave Briggs