Paul E. Ceruzzi - GPS

The MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series

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Extremism, J. M. Berger

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GPS, Paul E. Ceruzzi

Haptics, Lynette A. Jones

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Information and the Modern Corporation, James W. Cortada

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2018 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.

This book was set in Chaparral Pro by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited. Printed and bound in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ceruzzi, Paul E., author.

Title: GPS / Paul E. Ceruzzi.

Other titles: Global Positioning System

Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2018] | Series: The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018010471 | ISBN 9780262535953 (paperback : alk. paper)

eISBN 9780262350075

Subjects: LCSH: Global Positioning System--History.

Classification: LCC G109.5 .C47 2018 | DDC 910.285--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018010471

ePub Version 1.0

The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series offers accessible, concise, beautifully produced pocket-size books on topics of current interest. Written by leading thinkers, the books in this series deliver expert overviews of subjects that range from the cultural and the historical to the scientific and the technical.

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Bruce Tidor

Professor of Biological Engineering and Computer Science

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Popular histories of Americas space program describe the decade of the 1970s as a fallow period. Missions to the Moon were canceled after 1972. NASAs next spaceship, the Space Shuttle, was delayed by problems with its engines and heat-resistant tiles. Skylab, a space station built from surplus Apollo hardware, fell back to Earth in 1979, sooner than planned. The euphoria that accompanied the first human explorations in 1969 gave way to a cultural and economic shock over shortage of gasoline brought on by a cartel of oil-producing countries in 1973.

Yet a closer look at the events of that decade presents a different picture. This volume looks at a space technology that was conceived and designed in that decade, and that has since become a fundamental part of our global infrastructure: The Global Positioning System (GPS). A suite of satellites, orbiting 20,200 km above the Earth, provides precise time and positioning information to receivers on the ground, at sea, in the air, and to the crew of the International Space Station. The first components of what would become GPS were orbited in the late 1960s, and preliminary operations began in 1977. GPS operates worldwide, knowing no borders. Its basic signals are free, without restrictions.

This study gives a brief overview of the origins of GPS, with an emphasis on the direct predecessors that contributed to its design and implementation. It will show how the system faced many challenges in obtaining funding and support, until a series of events and advances in technologysome unforeseenrevealed its utility to a skeptical world. The story of GPSs origins has been told, but what remains unexplained is how a system of satellites, conceived by the military for military and commercial use, became not only a central resource for the US military but also a vital component in global shipping, air traffic, manufacturing, financial transactions, and trade. It has also become part of ordinary citizens lives. GPS is now standard equipment in new automobiles, and geolocation services are embedded into the ubiquitous smartphones that define social life in the twenty-first century.

How did this once-obscure space technology, brought out by a joint military-civilian committee in the mid-1970s, became such a critical, though invisible, infrastructure? One reason is that GPS has been commingled with three other technological developments, all of which had their roots in the 1970s. One was the Internet, conceived as a military resource-sharing system by the Defense Department in the mid-1960s and developed rapidly in the 1970s. Another was the microprocessor: a silicon integrated circuit on which were placed all the circuits of a general-purpose digital computer. It was invented early in the 1970s. The third was the development of cellular telephony. Bell Laboratories developed the theoretical basis for cell phones, and a phone supplied by Motorola made what has been called the first cell phone call in April 1973. These three developments, combined with GPS and other satellite technologies, have generated a tidal wave of social, economic, and military changes to the fabric of modern society.

Satellite positioning systems and their applications are evolving rapidly, and it is impractical to keep up with every new development. However, one can discern several patterns that point the way toward the future. One is the proliferation of similar systems in use or under development by other countries, including Russia, China, India, Japan, and the European Union. Another is that, as these systems become woven into the fabric of modern life, threats to them, either by natural forces or hostile nations, must be anticipated. Finally, we shall examine the tension between balancing military needs with the social use of these systems as they become embedded into (potentially driverless) automobiles, recreational drones, smartphones, watches, and other personal devices.