GPS inventor inducted into Inventors Hall of Fame

THE INVENTOR of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and satellite telemetry and timing guru Roger L. Easton has been inducted into the US National Inventors Hall of Fame.

According to Business Wire, Mr Easton has been given the ultimate seal of approval by the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his work in spacecraft tracking and timing and navigation technology.

The pioneering work Easton undertook in tracking satellites floating about in space ultimately led his GPS invention, without which we wouldn't find ourselves stuck in narrow country back roads or flooded river crossings. So, thank you, Roger.

"Roger's career contributions and his keen ability to develop new, bigger 'problem sets' from his experiences are what impressed me most," said the director of the US Naval Center for Space Technology, Pete Wilhelm.

"His leap in vision led to the United States' first satellite tracking network and patent of synchronized timing of spacecraft which became the fundamental basis for GPS."

Easton first registered his embryonic GPS patent in 1974, called "Navigation System Using Satellites and Passive Ranging Techniques." This was based on a "time-based navigational system with passive ranging, circular orbits, and space-borne high precision clocks synchronized to a master clock." µ