HOW SATELLITE NAVIGATION WORKS
Whether you’re navigating the streets on your smartphone or driving long distances using a satnav device, you’re using a separate system to everyday phone calls and messages
WORDS
BEN BIGGS
The atomic clocks inside each GPS satellite, like this one, are synchronised to a terrestrial master clock
© NASA
Your smartphone is an impressive device, combining the functions and computing power of a desktop PC in a handheld device. You’ve probably heard that smartphones today are more powerful than the computer that put the Apollo astronauts on the Moon – and that’s even truer today than it was 20 years ago. Modern smartphones also incorporate a technology that Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins could have used to navigate the streets and highways from their homes to the Kennedy Space Center launchpad in Florida, if it existed back in 1969: GPS, or the Global Positioning System.