GPS in a Nutshell

Global Positioning System
...in a Nutshell

The global positioning system, a satellite-based navigation network consisting of orbiting satellites, terrestrial monitor stations, ground antennas and a Master Control Station located at Falcon Air Force base in Colorado, is used cooperatively by all nations' government and public sectors to determine, with great accuracy, locations of receivers upon the Earth, both fixed and mobile. The GPS consists of three major segments: SPACE, USER and CONTROL. Numerous parties play important roles within the GPS community. Independent organizations and businesses, such as the Internal GPS Service for Geodynamics, the National Geodetic Survey, the Aerospace Corporation and the Garmin Corporation, work with the US Naval Observatory, the US Air Force and the US Coast Guard among other government and DoD segments to provide for the monitoring, research, maintenance, data-archiving and implementation of the entire system. The DoD bore the creation of the network, but still tries to cradle the full advantages for itself. By presidential proclamation, Ronald Reagan declared in the early 1980s that GPS would be made available to everyone--with the exception that the best accuracy would still be reserved for the military. This reservation was made possible by Selective Availability (or SA). SA is an intentionally-imposed degradation in the accuracy of civilian GPS by the U.S. Department of Defense. For the most part, there is a handshake between government and commercial players allowing for everyone to take part in the capabilities that GPS has to offer for both business and recreation.

lil 'bout Space Segment
lil 'bout User Segment

{Control Segment}


The global positioning system, a satellite-based navigation network consisting of orbiting satellites, terrestrial monitor stations, ground antennas and a Master Control Station located at Falcon Air Force base in Colorado, is used cooperatively by all nations' government and public sectors to determine, with great accuracy, locations of receivers upon the Earth, both fixed and mobile. The GPS consists of three major segments: SPACE, USER and CONTROL. Numerous parties play important roles within the GPS community. Independent organizations and businesses, such as the Internal GPS Service for Geodynamics, the National Geodetic Survey, the Aerospace Corporation and the Garmin Corporation, work with the US Naval Observatory, the US Air Force and the US Coast Guard among other government and DoD segments to provide for the monitoring, research, maintenance, data-archiving and implementation of the entire system. The DoD bore the creation of the network, but still tries to cradle the full advantages for itself. By presidential proclamation, Ronald Reagan declared in the early 1980s that GPS would be made available to everyone--with the exception that the best accuracy would still be reserved for the military. This reservation was made possible by Selective Availability (or SA). SA is an intentionally-imposed degradation in the accuracy of civilian GPS by the U.S. Department of Defense. For the most part, there is a handshake between government and commercial players allowing for everyone to take part in the capabilities that GPS has to offer for both business and recreation.

lil 'bout Space Segment	lil 'bout User Segment