TECHNOLOGY
Whose idea was it to make GPS?
GPS is found on many devices today
There had been a previous satellite navigation system called Transit. It was, by our standards, quite crude, but it was worldwide. GPS can provide constant coverage to the whole Earth, and Transit couldn’t do that. It would give you a relatively crude fix once every two or three hours. It was good enough for some Navy ships, but it wasn't good enough to land aeroplanes. A study was done, and 12 techniques were highlighted as ways to navigate using space satellites. We selected the hardest, which provided four dimensions: latitude, longitude, altitude and very precise time.