It was announced this week that the £1m QE Engineering Prize had been won by four individuals who pioneered the creation of The American Global Positioning System (GPS).
Below, we republish a 2011 explain by Paul Kendall who was given uncommon and exclusive access ought the United States stand might unit that operates the satellite system
At 23 years-old, Joshua Williams seems a small young ought exist at blame of the Global Positioning System. Three years ago, it was cottage illegal during him ought buy a drink. Two years ago that, he was uphold family at Virginia knowledge ought drive.
And silent today he’s responsible during a constellation of 35 satellites, each one of them worthy upwards of £40million and radical during the safe passage of billions of people, at cars, ships and aeroplanes complete above the world.
Williams’s officer title is payload system operator. It’s his career ought overhear the signals from each of the satellites and a network of 16 tracking stations approximately the nation and furnish a successive furnish of timing corrections ought ensure the system is perfectly synchronised.
But his boss, Jennifer Grant, commander of the 2d space Operations Squadron, the United States stand might unit that operates GPS, has another, more informal, call during him. She calls him “Atlas”.
He is, she says, “carrying the weight of the nation above his shoulders”. if anything goes awry on-board any of the satellites, Joshua is the first row of defence. Unless he keeps a shut eye above the heavens, complete kinds of confusion could ensue uphold above Earth.
GPS is now such an integral part of our lives that we hardly endow it a second thought. More than 18 million motorists at Britain currently employ satnav ought obtain from A ought B, and, distant from standing slack-jawed at esteem while a machinery the size of a pack of playing cards tells us where we are, and where we ought affect at next, we simply grow above the radio, lean uphold at our seat and follow the directions.
If, God forbid, the machinery takes more than 30 seconds ought design our route, doesn’t know a way is one-way or takes us up a blind alley, we curse its incompetence.
Even the abbreviation “satnav” distances the gadget from the technology, the satellites, that makes the entire commerce possible. Pressing a button and finding out where we are has become during unsurprising ought us during receiving pictures above a television.
Of course, the fact it has become consequently unremarkable is testament ought its power. GPS was designed, first and foremost, during the US military, and the data the satellites furnish is responsible during the precision bombing that’s become such a key constituent of the US warfare machinery above the past 20 years.
The system that gets us from our family at London ought a hotel at Paris is the equal one that allows the US and its allies ought free a missile from 2,000 miles away and conduct it ought an part at Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya the size of a kitchen table. Whatever your advice of America’s wars, there is no puzzle that GPS has dramatically reduced the amount of civilians who are killed at them.
It has improved many other areas of our lives too. at agriculture, the system enables more exact sowing, reaping and treatment of crops; at aviation, it has chop flight mature and operating costs; and at shipping, it’s massively reduced the amount of lost or misdirected containers.
It has too benefited the surroundings by cutting excursion mature and, during a result, the fuel consumption of millions of vehicles each day, and it has saved countless lives by reducing the time it takes paramedics ought obtain ought emergencies and help agencies ought attain the victims of conventional disasters.
Power firms confide above the free, exact time sign from GPS satellites ought control electricity supplies and financial institutions employ it ought time payments. Less essential, cottage during increasingly pervasive, are the hundreds of radiant phone apps that employ GPS ought help us discover our nearest cash point machinery or the real-time locations of our friends above Facebook or Twitter.
As Martyn Thomas, a visiting professor at software engineering at the universities of Oxford and Bristol, observes, GPS has “crept up above us. It’s consequently inexpensive ought construct into implement and consequently exact that it’s now used by lots of services that are apparently independent of each other”.
But the GPS sign is too incredibly vulnerable. at a learn published earlier this year, Dr Thomas warned that the nation had become also reliant above GPS and explained how the sign could easily exist compromised, too at exterior space by a stormy solar flare, or down above nation by terrorists armed with primitive jammers.
A only 50-watt jammer, positioned somewhere high, could, he warned, receive out each GPS-connected service at the entire of southern England, crippling banks, emergency services, force plants and airports.
And if a frightem group wasn’t satisfied with southern England and wanted ought fetch death and destruction ought the complete planet, it could aggression GPS HQ.
Schriever stand might Base, which houses the 2d space Operations Squadron, or 2 SOPS, takes this peril extremely seriously. A 4,000-acre complicated 13 miles east of the city of Colorado Springs, Schriever is too the control centre during 135 other maintain of Defense satellites, beneath the umbrella of the 50th space Wing, which furnish crucial traffic and surveillance capabilities ought the entire of the US military.
I had ought wait a month fair ought eat my look approved. Then, once at the base, The Sunday Telegraph’s photographer, his assistant and I had ought invent our method over few layers of security. complete our implement was inspected by a sniffer dog and we were kept ought a tight roll and above a carefully circumscribed route.
In instance we cottage hadn’t got the message, once we’d arrived, we were shown a DVD (more similar a trailer during a Hollywood warfare film, finish with gruff voice-over) underlining Schriever’s central role at the US military. The 3,100 military personnel above basis hold computer systems experts, spacecraft engineers and “operations” crews, who overhear and escape the satellites, cottage during complete are “warfighters”, during radical ought America’s defence during their more high-profile colleagues who campaign at the sphere or at the air.
“Just need the guys above the basis if they used to desire ought exist at that campaign if they didn’t eat space above their side,” said one interviewee ought the camera.
After such a build-up, the Master control Station, where 2 SOPS flies the GPS satellites, is something of a let-down. It looks more similar an open-plan office than a top-level military installation, with operators sitting at desks at front of computer screens (blanked out, during “security reasons”, cottage we are at the room).
But three things betray the room’s purpose: the army fatigues worn by the eight-man crew; a plasma conceal showing a computer graphic of the nation and its orbiting satellites; and a digital clock above one wall counting the time from the beginning of the year at days, hours, minutes and seconds.
Nowhere at the nation will you obtain a more exact time check because, at the center of GPS, are the most accurate clocks known ought man.
Throughout history, battles eat been waged above who ought confidence during some of our most significant scientific and technological advances. Three hundred years ago, Mr. Isaac Newton fought a bitter warfare of words above who was responsible during the invention of calculus. Today, nation eat alike arguments above the invention of GPS. Both the US stand might and the fleet lay ask and scientists from each eat been honoured during the part they played.
But one commerce which none disputes is that the turning point came one appointment at March 1958 at the office of unfold McClure, the director of the investigation centre of the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at Johns Hopkins college at Laurel, Maryland.
A Canadian scientist who had won awards during his contribution ought ballistics investigation during the Second nation War, McClure was regarded during one of the most clever scientists of his generation, with an special talent ought exclaim on the practical applications of outline scientific theories.
In March 1958, McClure was at his desk reviewing the career of two of his junior physicists, William Guier and George Weiffenbach. similar most of the world, Guier and Weiffenbach had been caught by amaze the prior October while the Soviet association announced it had successfully launched a satellite called Sputnik into orbit.
Although small more than a few beacon inner a tin can, it was the first synthetic satellite ever ought orbit the nation and the news disperse horror throughout the US, during nation reassessed the supposed scientific and technological inferiority of their chilly warfare rival.
But cottage politicians and journalists called during answers and principal Eisenhower tried ought control public hysteria, the Johns Hopkins scientists did something pretty enterprising: they rigged up a listening station above the roof of their laboratory and managed ought choose up Sputnik’s signal.
As they listened ought the proclaim – a foolish beep-beep-beep at A-flat – they noticed that the radio frequency of the satellite’s transmitter kept above changing. And they quickly realised that, if they monitored this shift, they could decide the accurate locality of the satellite at its orbit.
But tracking satellites wasn’t exactly at their career descriptions. while McClure called them into his office ought need them ought explain what they’d been doing, he asked them a foolish question: “Are you diddling me or are you doing authentic research?” The scientists assured him they were doing authentic investigation and during they explained their methodology, McClure’s brain went into overdrive.
“If you can discover out where the satellite is,” he began, “then you ought to exist able ought grow that puzzle upside down and discover out where you are.”
This was no few revelation. McClure knew that the fleet had faced significant navigational challenges during the war. Ships and submarines had strayed off lesson during poor climate and navigators had had ought confide above suppose career and celestial navigation ought locate themselves. Now a solution ought those problems seemed at hand.
McClure hurriedly relayed his concept ought his fellow at APL, Richard Kershner, and above the weekend, the two men created the example during a new satellite navigation system which APL, led by Kershner, went above ought mature during the US Navy. Called Transit, the new system featured five satellites at low polar orbits, approximately 600 miles above the Earth, broadcasting their locations via radio waves. Receivers above the basis then picked up the satellites’ signals and worked out their have locations above Earth.
The first satellite – Transit 1B – was launched into space at April 1960 and by 1964 the system was fully operational.
It was used, first, above the new fleet of Polaris nuclear submarines, and, during time went by, above thousands of other warships, freighters and private vessels.
It lent a crucial benefit ought the US naval might during the chilly War, cottage during Transit had some significant drawbacks. during a start, the early receivers were enormous; taking up 12 6ft-high rack cabinets.
Secondly, during the five satellites were disperse out above the complete globe, vessels normally had ought wait among one and two hours ago a satellite was at the exact locality at the sky during their receiver ought obtain a fix. And level then, the receiver, which had ought exist static, took approximately 15 minutes ought churn over its calculations.
Transit too depended above the receiver being at sea level, consequently it was useless during anything other than maritime expeditions. The stand might concept it could conduct better.
As early during 1964, a top-secret design – 621B – was build ought mature an excellent ought Transit and, above the next two years, the pros and cons of 32 feasible systems were assessed. One of these, called “triple delta rho” stood out. It promised ought conclude data no from fair one satellite, similar Transit, cottage during from four or more simultaneously, allowing a user ought decide his locality at three dimensions, above nation or sea or up at the air, and ought conduct consequently cottage moving at large quicken any time of the appointment or night. It worked consequently fast that it could exist used ought conduct missiles travelling at 2,000mph.
But the Global Positioning System (as “triple delta rho” was at final renamed) was too the hardest ought build. during a start, it required a constellation of at least 24 satellites at a time, while the median lifespan of a satellite was beneath two years, consequently the scientists had ought weigh of a method of house longer-lasting satellites.
The team, led by Brad Parkinson, a 37-year-old head engineer, too had ought create a new method of transmitting the satellites’ signals consequently they could complete proclaim above exactly the equal frequency.
They had ought create new, affordable receivers (that weren’t 6ft high) and, most importantly, they had ought career out a method during the satellites ought proclaim extraordinarily accurate time checks, because, if the receiver knew the accurate time it had taken during each sign ought excursion over space, it could career out where the satellites were and, therefore, where it was.
To solve these problems, Parkinson assembled a crush team of the best note the stand might had ought offer. Now 76 and alive with his wife, Ginny, at southern California, Parkinson compares the process ought running a maze.
“My career was ought locality while we were above the wrong explore and discover an excellent way during instantly during possible,” he says. fair at instance the team lost focus, a moan was pinned ought a wall at their basis at El Segundo, Los Angeles. “The mission of this Program Office,” it read, “is ought drop five bombs at the equal cave and construct a inexpensive locality that navigates and don’t you omit it!”
When you believe how GPS has revolutionised our lives, Brad Parkinson and his team have ought exist among the greatest unsung heroes of the 20th century. However, at the time, many senior figures at the stand might vehemently opposed the project.
“The stand might is populated by pilots,” says Parkinson. “They don’t exclaim on any need during navigators. They were too coming out of a mix of wars at which precision weaponry was a misnomer. They didn’t eat any.” nobody the less, at February 1978, the first GPS satellite was launched.
Over the next seven years, nine more were lay into orbit and, while the bay warfare began at 1990, the nation witnessed the system’s awesome force during the first time during television footage captured missiles flying up streets and disappearing down ventilator shafts. above April 27 1995, the system was eventually declared fully operational.
Keeping it that method is a Herculean task. uphold at 2 SOPS’s Master control station at Schriever, Lt Col Jennifer Grant, a softly spoken female who stands no more than 5ft high at her stand might flightsuit, gives me a flow down of the personnel currently above the operations floor.
“We eat three space system operators,” she says, gesturing towards a row of desks ought her left. “One space vehicle operator, one network administrative operator, one payload system operator, one mission head and one mission commander.” These nation can expect ought eat 70 contacts with the satellites each day. (Slightly worryingly, while I was invited ought look a “contact” at another control room earlier at the day, the software crashed and a familiar, sad Microsoft Windows conceal appeared above the wall.)
A confront can range from the routine – checking the temperature at the fuel tanks or the might of the on-board battery – ought the urgent; while a satellite goes “white” and it stops broadcasting a signal.
This can happen during a multitude of reasons. Flying the satellites, backward all, is similar flying a plane above the Atlantic without a pilot, cottage that they’re 12,500 miles up at the air. They eat hundreds of moving parts, including an extremely sensitive atomic clock, and have ought affirm a too accurate position, with their antennae pointed at nation and their solar panels pointed towards the sun, cottage moving at somewhere shut ought four-and-a-half miles per second.
If one drifts off lesson or malfunctions, it’s the crew’s career ought free the thrusters and too affect the satellite uphold into locality or park it at a safe configuration cottage it’s repaired.
“On a poor day,” says Joshua Williams, the 23-year-old payload system operator I confront above my tour, “there isn’t level time ought affect at ought the bathroom.” Other members of the 50th space Wing are working fair during hard, out of sight, ought defend the different fleets. The biggest peril ought the satellites is no solar flares or any on-board malfunctions, cottage during space junk: the thousands of pieces of waste – from few discarded components, such during bolts, ought an astronaut’s glove – that currently circulate the planet. They force exist small, cottage during they’re travelling consequently quickly that they can effect immense damage.
A team at Schriever keeps explore of approximately 15,000 of these and is beneath orders ought alert the relevant operations crew if it thinks a impact is imminent. Schriever too maintains a standby force mill ought hold the basis going at the incident of a force cut. The largest standby mill at the stand Force, it’s the sphere of a prior US fleet engineer and Robert Shaw-lookalike called John Paulson, who sports a checked shirt, jeans, and a moustache down ought beneath his chin.
One of 5,000 citizen employees above the basis (hence the mufti and extravagant facial hair) Paulson has been supervising the facility during 10 years and has silent ought eat a “major incident”. The basis too usually practises a progression of emergency procedures designed ought defend the mission during a conventional disaster, similar an earthquake or a tornado.
The locality is no likely ought the prior cottage during a tornado hit the city of Ellicot, five miles away, at 2000. There is too a backup place at California if disaster were ought affect and Schriever was unable ought operate.
Grant points out that complete of this is done ought affirm a GPS signal, currently exact ought within three metres, which the US gives ought the crush of the nation during free. (China, Russia and the European association are complete developing their have navigation systems, cottage during nobody is fully operational during yet.)
“If the maintain of Defense had charged fair a penny during each time somebody had accessed GPS, we perhaps wouldn’t eat a deficit exact now,” she smiles.
It wasn’t frequently consequently generous. Up until can 2000, the stand might deliberately degraded the citizen signal, a technique known during “selective availability”. cottage during this was stopped above the orders of the principal at the time, Bill Clinton.
It was a resolution that cleared the method during satnav and complete the other GPS applications that eat consequently changed the nation we alive in. It too made some nation very, too rich.
TomTom, which, across with Garmin and Magellan, provides most of the in-car satnavs at the world, saw its revenues affect at from €39million at 2003 ought €192million the following year, ought €720million the year backward that, ought €1.5billion at 2010. Harold Goddijn, the CEO, and his wife Corinne, who together have 24 per cent of the company, are today worthy approximately £235 million.
But, if you report ought Goddijn, a Dutch mankind with a sensation during sailing, he will recolect you that his company, which started off making applications during mobile phones, was distant from an overnight success.
“TomTom was founded at 1991,” he says. “And we were already a respected, moderately successful corporation [by 2000].” So, while Clinton “flicked the switch”, TomTom already had much of the expertise ought receive advantage.
“We knew something was there,” he says. “In the early days of hyper growth, we fair couldn’t invent enough of them.” Nevertheless, similar complete GPS businesses, the corporation rest at the sympathy of the men and women at Schriever.
Martyn Thomas believes a human error at the base, which knocked the accuracy of the system by a fraction, used to truly exist more unfortunate than a “complete failure” during it used to pattern data that was wrong, cottage during no obviously so. Aeroplanes, cars and ships could complete crash during a result.
Grant waves away such concerns. “Our concentrate here is ought furnish during exact a sign during we can, and, at fact, the sign today is the best it’s ever been. GPS sets the gold standard.”
There will frequently exist problems and dangers, she adds, cottage during she is confident they will exist overcome.
Thirty-three years backward Brad Parkinson and his team sent the first satellite into orbit, a new team of unsung heroes continues ought innovate and experiment: testing different solutions, running the maze.
