9. Navigation satellites - uses

We have discussed television and weather satellites but another major aspect of satellite use is for navigation.

Military

The GPS or Global Positioning System is one such system. It cost hundreds of millions to develop and its original purpose was to provide the US military with navigation capability, whether they are in the desert, jungle or anywhere else. Indeed, it is still run by the US military.

Scientific

Gradually, non-military commercial devices became available which scientist and engineers in the field used for location measurement. For instance, a vulcanologist wanting to measure the movement of a volcano before it erupted may use a very sensitive GPS instrument. This equipment was not cheap!

Commercial

Moving on from military and scientific uses, commercial businesses saw the benefits of satellite navigation and for providing real-time tracking of their lorry fleets. Farmers saw the benefit of using it to optimise their harvests. Gradually the equipment became cheaper as more and more people used it.

Cars

At some point, car makers realised that their customers would like to be able to navigate without maps, and so they began to fit their luxury cars with on-board navigation systems. This meant millions of devices were now needed and so the price dropped yet again to mass-market levels. The age of satellite navigation had begun

Leisure

By today, GPS chips are so cheap that they are fitted into smart phones and hand held navigation gadgets. With the right software 'app' you can use a smart phone to navigate around towns and country making use of its GPS chip.