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THE KINGS OF THE SEA 10/
hour is needed to do the job. A robot calculator using the
Doppler-Fizeau effect usually does all the work. When the satellite
passes overhead it emits a crystal-controlled frequency, a
stable tone that changes as the whistle of a train changes when it
passes by. The frequency of the tone received gets higher as the
source moves toward you and drops as it moves away.
I know the Transit satellites very well indeed because the first
three that were put in orbit were equipped with spherical spiral
antennas that I invented and described in detail in Aviation
Week on August 25, 1958. I also appHed for a U.S. patent, but it
was never issued to me for this invention because then the Navy
would have been forced to pay me a compensation for the unauthorized
use of this improvement in electronics. NASA also tried
to use the same tactics with most inventors but had to change
this course rapidly because it did not have quite the pull of the
Navy and everyone who came up with a good invention kept it
under wraps until a patent was issued to him which normally
takes at least two full years. NASA could not wait that long and
therefore decided to recognize the rights of the inventors.
Aside from the debatable methods that were used to
obtain
the elements of Transit satellites, this system is of great simplicity
and unsurpassed precision. The calculator keeps working all
the time and tells your position with an error margin of less than
100 feet. The only drawback is the price of this computer. Only
the Navy, cruise ships, and the big oil tankers can afford it. The
Air Force has long been peeved that it has to use the Navy system,
and satellites and announcements have been made recently
that a new and better system using more satellites and much
lighter and more precise receivers will be soon put in operation
by the Air Force. When that day arrives every electronics engineer
will be able to construct less expensive equipment and
make navigation even more precise and easier than it is already.
navigation on earth,
Now that we have seen how difficult it was to develop good
you can imagine how much more complicated
it is in space. In fact, it is so difficult that up to now not a
single space vehicle has been steered by its own navigation system.
All depended on ground guidance. Tracking radar beams
measmre the distance and the angular co-ordinates of the
launched space capsule from widely based stations. Ground com-