When Was GPS Developed?

When was GPS developed? The U.S. Department of Defense first started development of the GPS in the 1970's to keep track of their different military units and it was used in the Persian Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm to find their way across barren land that had no landmarks, like in the desert.

No-one heard much about it until May of 2000, when the Selective Availability of the satellites was disabled so that the general public could take advantage of the same technology, when navigating. Since that time, GPS receivers have become more accurate and affordable, capable of mapping navigation a number of ways.

If you are learning "when was GPS developed", it is important to realize there are 24 satellites that are circling the earth at all times, making their rotation twice a day. There sole purpose is to transmit positioning coordinates to be received by the GPS receivers, in order to determine the location of the receiver.

Now, handheld GPS receivers are used everywhere, including cars, boats, airplanes and there are many people that use them to figure out where they are. Hikers can find their way through the woods, map makers can accurately update maps and drivers are able to find their way around strange towns.

Most GPS units contain the basic maps, but they can be hooked up to PDAs or Notebooks and memory drives can expand the functioning of this navigational tool.

Also known as the Global Positioning System, knowing a bit about the history of GPS can help you to understand that the technology has been developing over a period of years and has become more sophisticated in the past decade. This has made GPS receivers more advanced, more affordable and easier to operate, than they were back in the 1970's.

It was back in 1997 when the U.S. Secretary of Transportation stated that most people don't even know what the GPS is, but he estimated that in five years, most Americans wouldn't be able to live without it. Today, he is partially right because it has taken slightly more than five years for the technology to evolve, but when asking the question, "when was GPS developed", most people aren't aware that it has been developing and becoming more sophisticated over several decades.

It is anticipated that the GPS will gain in popularity and out-date the printed maps that many travelers have become accustomed to using. As U.S. taxpayers were the ones that footed the bill for the development of the GPS technology, it is free for their use, although the military is capable of keeping enemies from using the system, should they need to disable the transmissions.

When was GPS developed? The answer would be that it is still a work in progress, although it has been developing ever since the first satellites were put in orbit, back in the 1970's.

The sophistication of GPS receivers has improved the consumer use of the GPS for personal navigation and there are even cell phones that have the technology built in. GPS has been around a little longer than most civilians know, but it has become more user-friendly in the process.

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