{"id":636,"date":"2011-05-01T08:08:03","date_gmt":"2011-05-01T12:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/?p=636"},"modified":"2011-05-01T08:08:03","modified_gmt":"2011-05-01T12:08:03","slug":"our-modern-space-based-navigation-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/2011\/05\/words-of-wisdom\/our-modern-space-based-navigation-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Modern Space-Based Navigation System"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Since the beginning of time, man has looked for better ways to navigate.\u00a0 Land exploration was easier because of the various landmarks that prevailed, but oceanic exploration was an entirely different challenge.\u00a0 Early sailors created primitive charts of the coast lines and learned to look to the sun and stars for direction.\u00a0 Over time, man developed instruments such as the compass, quadrant, sextant and chronometers to assist sailors in charting their course.\u00a0 The first gyroscope compass that pointed true north was not invented until 1907.\u00a0 Radio detection and ranging (radar) was invented in 1935, and then long range navigation (Loran) was developed during World War II.\u00a0 But late in the 20th century, NAVSTAR, the official name for the global positioning system (GPS), was invented for military use.\u00a0 Between 1978 and 1994, the US Department of Defense launched 24 satellites into space.\u00a0 These satellites, which orbit about 12,000 miles above the earth and travel at 7,000 mph, complete two orbits every 24 hours.\u00a0 The satellites, each weighing about 2,000 pounds, are 17 feet wide and powered by solar panels.\u00a0 After about 10 years of service, a replacement satellite is launched into orbit to keep up the accuracy of the system.\u00a0 In the 1980s, the US government decided that the GPS system should also be available for civilian use.\u00a0 Today, GPS has become a necessity for all modes of transportation.\u00a0 When your GPS receiver is locked onto four or more satellites, it can determine latitude, longitude, altitude, speed, the time of sunrise and sunset and so much more.\u00a0 We are truly living in a fast-paced electronic era where a space-based global navigation system, maintained by our government with free accessibility to anyone with a GPS receiver, now provides us with the information we need for travel.\u00a0 And as fast as this new information age is emerging, it is a wonder to imagine what the next decade will bring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since the beginning of time, man has looked for better ways to navigate.\u00a0 Land exploration was easier because of the various landmarks that prevailed, but oceanic exploration was an entirely different challenge.\u00a0 Early sailors created primitive charts of the coast lines and learned to look to the sun and stars for direction.\u00a0 Over time, man<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-words-of-wisdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":760,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions\/760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}