Why Do We Use Gps

Great Essays
Have you ever wondered how people are able to communicate to others from across the world? Satellites are also the reason we are able to watch tv and find out what road to go on when your husband doesn't ask for directions. Most people use GPS in their everyday life, but do they know how it works?
A satellite is an object that moves around a bigger object. The earth and the moon are satellites because the earth moves around the sun, and because the moon also moves around the earth. Many satellites come in different shapes and sizes, but the most common parts of a satellite are the antenna and a source of power. The antenna is used to give and receive information, and the power source can be a solar panel or a battery. The solar panels can make power by turning sunlight into electricity.
In space there are about 3,700 satellites. Russia has the most satellites in orbit, with 1,324. The United States have 658 satellites in orbit. There are 24 satellites in space to control GPS. The type of satellites they use for this is called the Navstar. The Navstar is a network of U.S satellites that provide the global positioning system. GPS is used for navigation by both civilians and the military. The GPS satellites
…show more content…
They are put into space and they follow the same gravitational laws which govern the satellites. Although once the satellites are launched into space the artificial satellites are sent high enough in space to escape the denser parts of the atmosphere. They are put high enough into space which would slow down the orbit of the satellite and cause it to plummet to the ground. The proper height that artificial satellites are put at so that it can orbit earth indefinitely is 200 miles(320 kilometers). Ones that are placed at that altitude take at least 90 minutes to circle the earth. The reason for that is that the higher the altitude the slower the orbit of the satellites

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Pt1420 Unit 9

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1.Because of the Earths daily rotation it causes the sun to appear to rise in the east and set in the west so it creates a day and night so the moon relies on the sun to set and rise during a certain time in the hemisphere 2.The seasons result from the 23.5-degree tilt of the Earth's axis combined with its revolution around the sun 3.The Moon's and Sun's gravitational pulls on Earth are responsible for this natural phenomenon creating the tides. Tides occur because the Moon's gravity decreases with distance from the Moon. 4. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth is positioned directly between the Sun and the Moon and the Earth casts a shadow on Moon.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    They are used to show us exactly where we are in the world. The GPS can show us where to go and give us directions to get to a place we are not familiar with. People also use Global Positioning Systems to find their way out of situations where they are lost. A GPS will give you step by step directions to help you navigate anywhere around the world. Imagine driving from one coast to the other of the United States, using only paper maps and road…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Nt1310 Unit 9 Lab Report

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages

    (Pages 54 – 57) a. The Earth’s atmosphere prevents a majority of the light that stars produce and is something that, at this point of time, we can’t fix. By using satellites, however, we can go beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.…

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    However, the United States was not the only country that doing research about rockets and satellites; the Soviet Union has the precession in this field. According to the article, "Fifty Years after the First Artificial Satellite: From Sputnik 1 to ENVISAT" by Arthur P. Cracknell and Costas A. Varotsos, they state: "The era of satellite…

    • 1324 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Space Race Rivalry As World War II came to an end, a new battle called the Cold War sprung. Another area for battle during the war between the Soviet Union and the United States of America in addition to the warfare was the Space Race. The Soviet Union launched the first satellite. Fearful of military control, this is the leading factor in the establishment of the Space Race. On October 4, 1957, a Soviet R-7 intercontinental missile launched Sputnik, or Traveler, into the Earth’s orbit.…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    NASA Deserves More Funding As a federal agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) receives it’s funding from the annual federal budget passed by the United States Congress. For the fiscal year of 2017, NASA’s budget was $19.5 billion. This number being only about 0.489% of the total US budget at $4 trillion. However, the American public on average, believes NASA’s budget has a much larger share of the federal budget than it actually does.…

    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jurassic Changes in Meteorology Meteorology has changed over time and affected our society. It started in 650 B.C. and now in 2016 we use meteorology to detect weather patterns. In 650 B.C. babylonians tried to predict short-term weather changes based on the appearance of clouds and occurrence such as “haloes”. Chinese astronomers developed a calendar that divides the year into twenty-four festivals, with each festival having it’s own kind weather.…

    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Geocaching Research Paper

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Aljane B., Katiana P., Ashley H., Jessica T. TIM 302-002 Geocaching Paper Introduction Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunt game that uses Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled devices to help participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates to find the geocache that is hidden at the location.(geocaching.com/guide/) A geocache is a container of different sizes ranging from nano to large that contains a log sheet and different items that are left from visitors. The geocaching idea was introduced on May 3 when Dave Ulmer wanted to test the accuracy by hiding a navigational target in the woods, which was called the Great American GPS Stash Hunt and posted it in an internet GPS users’ group. Furthemore, Matt Stum created…

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Gravity is a force keeping things together in our universe. Gravity plays a giant role in space and in everything we use. Gravity is important during a lunar eclipse because gravity is keeping the Sun Moon and Earth in a line. The Earth’s gravitational pull is keeping the Moon in a line with it, while the Earth is orbiting the Sun when they all line up in a row it can create a lunar or solar eclipse.…

    • 202 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Same and Different Imagine you're in a space shuttle orbiting earth or flying in a rocket to the moon. A rocket and a space shuttle are the same in some ways. They're different in many ways also.…

    • 132 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Space is a Gift Look in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No it’s one of NASA’s rockets! What do you think they’re doing?…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In University, researchers are going on the offense against those who would try to hack GPS systems like those used in everything from cars to military drones to cellphone systems and power grids. Some researchers have come up with GPS receiver modifications that allow the systems to distinguish between real and bogus signals that spoofers would use to trick cars, airplanes and other devices into handing over control. They emphasized that the threat of GPS spoofing is very real.…

    • 78 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    “How Many Man-Made Satellites Are Currently Orbiting Earth?” TPM, 28 Mar. 2014, talkingpointsmemo.com/idealab/satellites-earth-orbit. INTINI, ELISABETTA. “10 Reasons We Should Be Exploring Space.” 10 Reasons We Should Be Exploring Space | Science and Technology | Space | Spiked, www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/10-reasons-we-should-be-exploring-space/17101#.WeNUw2iCyUk.…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    With the two satellites sent into orbit by rivaling countries, the exploration and conquest of space…

    • 1534 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Communication satellites, used for relaying anything from telephone signals, radio, and television signals, have been orbiting Earth since the first in 1962. Currently, there are more than 1,100 publically and privately owned active communication satellites in orbit with more than 2,600 inactive ones causing a significant amount of space debris. Importantly, communication satellites provide our security and our entertainment.…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays