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Global Positioning System
Global Positioning System
Space Segment
User Segment
Control Segment
Ground
Antennas
Master Station Monitor Stations
Space Segment
24 satellite vehicles.
Six orbital planes.
Inclined 55o with respect to equator
Orbits separated by 60o
20,200 km elevation above Earth.
Each satellite circles the Earth twice a day.
Five to eight satellites visible from any point on Earth.
Control Segment
Master control station (The master control station, located at Falcon Air Force
Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is responsible for overall management of the remote
monitoring and transmission sites ).
Monitor stations (16 monitoring stations are located throughout the world including
six from the Air force and 10 from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency(NGA). Each
of the monitor stations checks the exact altitude, position, speed, and overall health of the
).
orbiting satellites
Ground antennas (Four ground antennas co-located with some of the monitor
stations are used to communicate with the GPS satellites for command and control purposes ).
Control Segment
User Segment
GPS antennas & receiver/processors.
Receives the signals from the GPS satellites
and uses the transmitted information to
calculate the user’s three dimensional
position and time.
GPS Uses
• Agriculture
• Surveying
• Navigation (air, sea, land)
• Engineering
• Military operations
• Unmanned vehicle guidance
• Mapping