Now that I have found you !
Since the age old days , humans have been very fond of travelling.They have made great strides across multiple continents and are still nurturing this passion in realms well outside our globe also.With travelling , there came a need of a proper navigation system upon which everyone could rely.It started out with the Pole Star and the Lodestones at early times, to the intricately designed handmade maps in the medieval age.Still people got confused while travelling , as they could read a map and move accordingly , but cannot locate their position.This led to a revolution in the navigation systems , and as a result we got GPS !
GPS , or Global Positioning System , is a technology that can pinpoint the location of a particular person on any point on the globe.Like many other technological advancements in our era , the GPS was also a masterpiece that was exclusively designed and mainted by the US Military( just like the project ARPANET , or the thing that we know as World wide Web today ! ).The first satellite of GPS was launched in 1978.After the success of the first run , a fleet of 26 more satellites were launched by the US Military , and in 1994 , it was made open for the rest of the world to have access to this GPS Technology.
Out of the total of these 27 satellites , only 24 are actually functioning , while the other 3 are kept as a backup plan.The satellites are solar powered , and also have batteries for backing up.The network is designed in such a way that , every satellite will rotate the earth twice a day along their own unique orbits , and also , every point on earth will be covered by a miniumum of 3 satellites at any instance of time , which corresponds to a minimum number of signals required for a GPS receiver to calculate the precise location.Generally a signal from a 4th satellite can also evaluate out the exact altitude , along with the standard longitude and latitude.It also helps to track in a much more complicated array of data like the real-time speed , acceleration , direction , and also average of all these in regular time intervals.These estimations are done upon a very simple concept of geometry , known as Trilateration.
Trilateration is basically the process to find out a precise absolute location of an object by applying concepts of circles, spheres or triangles , or may be all of these.It is not to be confused with Triangulation , which is all total a different concept.
Normally there are very low chances of a GPS not being able to reflect back the location as long as you have a clear vision of the sky , be you are in a metropolitan city or in a forest.If the number of signal is less than 3 , then instead of estimating upon limited signals and showing inaccurate data, the GPS will show the user that it is unable to calculate the position.
So the next time you fire up Pokémon GO, remember that 27 satellites are trying to connect with you and is trying to pinpoint you the exact place where you belong on this vast globe !
No comments: