Who invented navigation?

The GPS we see now is not a technology invented by one person. It is a "military-to-civilian" application technology that has been gradually improved and improved with the development of satellite technology. The real development of GPS civilian technology began to become truly popular at the beginning of this century. The GPS navigators we currently see on the market have only been developed in recent years.

The operating environment of this tutorial: Windows 7 system, Dell G3 computer.

The GPS we see now is not a technology invented by one person. It is a "military-to-civilian" application technology that has been gradually improved and improved with the development of satellite technology. To understand the history of GPS, we might as well look at several important historical events:

1. In October 1957, the Soviet Union launched an artificial earth satellite. MIT's Lincoln Laboratory and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory jointly began a satellite tracking project. The Navy's transmission system experiments began in December at the Applied Physics Laboratory.

2. In 1964-1965, the first position correction was carried out through the transmission system satellite on the Polaris submarine. (This can be said to be the prototype of GPS)

3. In 1961, American Airlines began the development of GPS systems to meet military needs.

4. 1968 Standards for defensive navigation satellite systems were developed.

5. 1973 The U.S. Department of Defense approved the Navstar satellite manufacturing plan for the GPS system.

6. 1977 includes the basic features of later GPS satellites, such as the launch of experimental satellites carrying the first batch of cesium clocks.

7. 1978-1985 Ten GPS system prototype satellites manufactured by Rockwell International were launched into space.

8. In 1996, the White House announced that everyone will have access to a high-precision GPS system.

9. Between 1989 and 1993, 24 satellites were launched at a rate of 6 per year. The last satellite was launched in June 1993. These satellites laid the foundation for future global applications of GPS.

10. Since GPS came into full operation in 1994, improvement work has been ongoing. This is because civilian users require GPS to have better anti-jamming and interference performance, higher security and integrity; the military requires satellites to transmit larger power and new military signals that are separated from civilian signals; while for those using As a "smart" weapon for GPS navigation, it is more important to speed up signal acquisition.

The biggest improvement to date in civilian GPS navigation accuracy occurred on May 2, 2000, when the United States stopped the practice of deliberately degrading civilian signal performance (called Selective Availability, or S/A). When working with S/A, civilian users only have 100 meter accuracy 99% of the time. But when S/A is cut off, the navigation accuracy increases, and 95% of the position data can fall within a circle with a radius of 6.3 meters.

It can be seen from the above analysis that the real development of GPS civilian technology began to become truly popular at the beginning of this century. The GPS navigators we currently see on the market have only been developed in recent years. developed. Of course, the development speed of electronic technology is astonishing, even several times faster than the development of computer technology.

In short, GPS technology is not an invention of one person, but a manifestation of "collective wisdom". Hope my answer can be helpful to you.

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