The Global Positioning System (GPS):Creating Satellite Beacons in Space,Engineers Transformed Daily Life on Earth

• 作者: Peter Weiss
• 来源期刊: 工程（英文）
• 年，卷（期）: 2021,（3）
• 所属期刊栏目: Engineering Achievements
• 页码范围: 290-303
• 页数: 14页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

1.Prologue In late 1990,war in the Persian Gulf loomed beyond a January deadline for Iraq to pull its invading forces back from Kuwait.On the front lines of the buildup leading to Operation Desert Storm,American troops began asking their families back home to shop local marine supply stores for commercial satellite navigation receivers and to mail the devices to them in the Middle East,A groundbreaking satellite constellation that the US military had been developing for decades to provide the nation's troops with global navigation data still lacked about a third of its full count of spacecraft.Nonetheless,enough of the satellites were orbiting and functional to broadcast position and time data that could greatly aid the US soldiers massing on and near the Arabian Peninsula to navigate the featureless desert terrain where they might soon be fighting.Unfortunately,almost none of them,nor their tanks,helicopters,or other vehicles,had been equipped with the military receivers needed to download the most precise data.