My research on the history of GPS has reaffirmed to me that journalists are extremely sloppy with facts. Here's a letter my dad recently wrote to Physics Today (UK)
After spending some months with you and Mr. Chalmers on the article on Global Navigation I was surprised to find a number of errors in Mr. Corfield’s article titled, “Sputnik’s Legacy.” In the first paragraph the article states about the Vanguard that: “The satellite it had contained—a hastily put together contraption of wires and circuitry designed only to send a radio signal back to Earth—rolled a few feet across the launch pad beeping forlornly.” This statement demonstrates real ignorance of the satellite’s origin. For the Vanguard satellite was developed over several years—it was put together carefully using the best techniques of the time. Its transistors were of the latest Bell Laboratories/Western Electric design. We have pictures of the units, if anyone would like to see the design.
Rather than one transmitter, it had two and the two crystal-controlled oscillators with crystals cut so their frequencies depended on the temperatures they experienced. One crystal measured the temperature of the satellite shell and one, the internal package. This design is described more fully in an article in The Review of Scientific Instruments for February, 1959. This description also describes the solar panels used! t! o p ower one of the transmitters for about 6 years.
The reason that Vanguard was selected over the Army’s Explorer I for the IGY was that the Vanguard proposal was superior and actually had a scientific purpose: namely, to locate islands in the Pacific where the local verticals are displaced. The Explorer proposal by Dr. von Braun mentioned upper air research but did not delineate what research or how it would be conducted.
As Mr. Corfield states, the explosion of Dec. 8, 1957 should “be considered a routine hazard of flight-testing.” New technology naturally is not proven technology. The attempted launch was not a complete loss since the satellite worked despite the explosion of the rocket. Explorer I was successful in part because it used Vanguard transistors and a transmitter. In fact Explorer I could have been launched without Vanguard technology but there would have been no signal to tell anyone that it was in orbit. The Explorer II launch did not go according to plan in that the fourth stage did not fire so the satellite did not achieve orbit. No one has ever called this set-back a disaster.
How do I know these things? I proposed the design of the Vanguard 1 satellite and supervised its construction after Dr. John Hagen approved my proposal.
Yours truly,
p.s. While I have emphasized an error that I can document, I should mention that there are many other errors in the article. For one, to use GPS as a legacy of Sputnik is a real stretch. I doubt if anyone can find “a spool on which to wind the thread of history” connecting the two. (Quoting from Henry Adams) Unfortunately, too many authors confuse legacy with time. Just because an author existed before another author it does not follow that the one is the legacy of the other. While it may be so it is far more likely to be unconnected.
Last edited by Dr Moore on Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
Mercury wrote:What I find amazing about GPS is that it would not be possible without Einsteins formulas about Relativity.
Agreed. It uses the uniform speed of light and adjust the atomic clocks for their distance from the earth and the speed of the satellites. My dad's concept of using circular orbits simplifies the two adjustments.