It's a dark and rainy night. You find yourself on an unfamiliar, isolated and dangerous road. It finally occurs to you that you took a wrong turn in Albuquerque two hours ago. You would gladly ask for directions at a gas station... if only there were one in sight. You are lost and you need help from someone as brilliant as Albert Einstein.
Well, maybe that's a little drastic, but, in essence, that is exactly what you are doing when you engage commercial navigational devices that use the global positioning system such as Magellan's NeverLost used by Hertz customers for turn-by-turn navigation or OnStar, available on many different automobiles today.
It all started prior to World War II, when scientists wanted to further study Einstein's theory of gravity. In order to do this, they had to come up with atomic clocks which were much more accurate that the clocks that were being used at the time. These devices, used in concert with military satellite technology, bring us to what is becoming familiar to us in rental cars and new automobiles. It is a burgeoning new multimillion-dollar global market industry.
Scientists at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) first discovered the potential use of a satellite as a potential navigation device shortly after the former Soviet Union launched Sputnik on October 4, 1957. They measured the distance from a specified place on earth by the intensity and frequency of the beeps Sputnik gave off.
There are currently 24 Navstar satellites, orbiting the earth once every twelve hours, to give us full coverage of the entire earth. Each one weighs close to 2,000 pounds and is about the size of a large automobile. In 1978, the first functioning satellite used for this mission was launched. The last one was successfully launched in 1993.
Using a four-point satellite system, this device can pinpoint your whereabouts within 100 miles- oftentimes much closer. An explanation of the four-point system can make you regret that you never paid attention to your geometry teacher in high school. But who knew that some day you might want to understand the concept of trilateration!
Global Positioning Satellite systems are now relatively inexpensive and becoming more accessible for everyday use. There are already over 500,000 of these devices in use in Japan and their use in America is increasing.
So, as you look up on that dark and rainy night, you can thank Albert Einstein, MIT, the military or your lucky stars that we live in an age where technology can help us find our way home. Even if we did make a wrong turn in Albuquerque.
Pat Rioux
