Satellite-aided navigation - Availability and application of the Global Positioning System

Many experts expect that the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) will become the principal navigational system of the future and will replace most of the currently existing navigational systems. Such a development will provide a market for a variety of GPS-user devices. The GPS-Navstar system will probably become fully available to users in 1987/88. Applications of the GPS are discussed, taking into account navigation and positioning applications on land in cases involving motor vehicles and trains, navigation and position determination related to Space-Shuttle operations and docking activities in near-earth space, maritime applications, and possibilities for time comparison and clock synchronization. The development of GPS receivers in West Germany is also considered, giving attention to user equipment for a comparison of clocks and for time transfer operations, position-finding apparatus for geodesy and land surveys, navigation devices for civil aviation, and navigation systems for ships.