# Presentation: 691164

## The Global Positioning SystemA Worldwide Information Utility

**ESTME Week****March 2003**
**Office of Space Commercialization****Technology Administration****U.S. Department of Commerce**

## What is GPS?

**Constellation of 24+ satellites operated by U.S. Air Force**
**Satellites broadcast precise time information**
**Using this information, you can easily calculate your exact location on the Earth**
**GPS service is available:**
**Anywhere in the world**
**24 hours a day**
**Under all weather conditions**
**For FREE!**

## How It Works

**RATE = Speed of Light (300,000 km/s)**
**TIME = How long it takes for the signal****to reach the receiver**

**RATE x TIME = DISTANCE**

- It’s 9:30:00

- Now it’s 9:30:01

**TIME = 1 second**
**DISTANCE = 300,000 km**

## How It Works

**With four or more satellites, a GPS receiver can triangulate your precise position in space and time**

## GPS is a “Dual-Use” Technology

**Originally developed for military purposes**
**Prominent in Gulf War, Afghanistan (“smart bombs”)**
**Will be critical to operations in Iraq**
**Civilian were given access in 1983**
**Commercial use now dwarfs military use**
**GPS is jointly managed at a national level by the Interagency GPS Executive Board (IGEB)**

## Interagency GPS Executive Board

**Agriculture**

**Commerce**

**State**

**Interior**

**NASA**

**Justice**

**Joint Chiefs ****      of Staff**

**Interagency GPS Executive Board**

**Defense**

**Transportation**

**Notes:**
In fact, the offices of the IGEB are located at the Department of Commerce building in Washington, D.C., and I have the pleasure of serving there for the past two and a half years.

## Commercial GPS Applications Span A Wide Range of Economic Activities

**Satellite Ops:**
**Ephemeris, Timing**

**Communications:**
**Network Timing,**
**Synchronization**

**Surveying &**
**   ****Mapping**

**Fishing &**
** ****Boating**

**Off shore**
**  ****Drilling**

**Recreation**

**Trucking & **
**  ****Shipping**

**Personal **
**Navigation**

**Aviation**

**Railroads**

**Power Grid**
** ****Interfaces**

**Commercial GPS Applications Span ****A Wide Range of Economic Activities**

## Global Sales by Market Segment

**Source: ITA, 1998**

- $ Millions

## New Commercial Applications Are Developed Every Day

**Open pit mining**
**Child safety**
**Automatic snowplow guidance**
**Spacecraft control**
**Power grid management**

## Huge Potential Exists in the Market for Value Added Services

**Software development**
**Embedded applications**
**Localized Geographical Information Systems (GIS)**
**Internet integration**
**Wireless markets**
**M-Commerce**

**(Translation: you could make a lot of money developing this stuff!)**

## Transportation

**Greater safety, fewer accidents**
**More efficient routes, fuel savings**
**Improved traffic throughput**

## Surveying & Mapping

**Surveying is required before building anything**
**Buildings**
**Dams**
**Power lines**
**Telecom towers**
**Pipelines**
**GPS mapping is especially useful for:**
**Oil, gas, and mineral exploration**
**Flood/disaster planning**
**GPS technology enables <1 cm accuracy and 100%-300% savings in time, cost, & labor**

## Construction

**Machinery, asset, and personnel management**
**Rapid surveys for laying foundation piles, etc.**
**Accident prevention**
**Remote control of machinery possible**

- GPS/RTK technology was used in the
- construction of the Øresund Bridge
- between Denmark and Sweden

## Scientific Research

**Monitoring geological change**
**Glaciers, tectonic plates, earthquakes, volcanoes**
**Wildlife behavior**
**Atmospheric modeling**
**Water vapor content**
**Oceanic studies**
**Tidal patterns**
**Surface mapping**
**Time transfer**

## Environmental Management

**Forestry**
**Wetlands management**
**Natural resource management**
**Fisheries boundary enforcement**
**Endangered species and habitat preservation**
**Hazardous material cleanup**
**Oil spills, toxic waste**

## Timing

**GPS offers an inexpensive alternative to costly, high maintenance timing equipment**
**Telecommunications network  synchronization & management**
**Phones, pagers, wireless systems**
**LANs, WANs, Internet**
**Financial transactions**
**Electrical power grid management & fault location**
**Digital signatures for e-commerce**

## Precision Agriculture

**Maximize use of resources**
**Optimized plowing of crop rows**
**Tailored applications of seeds, fertilizer, water, pesticides**
**Improved management of land, machinery, personnel, time**
**Greater crop yields**
**Net benefit: $5-14 per acre**
**Minimize environmental impacts**
**Localized identification and treatment of distressed crops reduces chemical use**
**Precise leveling of fields prevents fluid runoff**

## Consumer/Recreational

**Portable receivers for fishermen, hunters, hikers, cyclists, etc.**
**Integration of GPS into cellular phones (E-911), wristwatches, PDA’s**
**Recreational facilities -- golf courses, ski resorts**

## Yesterday

**25-100 m**

## Today

**6-10 m**

## Tomorrow

**1 m?**

**Plus: Better resistance to interference**