Civil GPS from a future perspective

Abstract

After a review of the present GPS program status and its announced schedule, a change of perspective to the future is attempted. Well before the year 2000, widespread civil use is predicted, spurred by the availability of simple and reliable $500 equipment for applications including hiking and automobile driving. The purpose is to focus on today's system issues of L <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> access, user charge policy, differential GPS standards, global mapping standards, and how to obtain a fair return on the American GPS investment, from the future perspective. The challenge is clear; the questions are: "Who is concerned?" and "Where does the civil planning responsibility lie?"