[time-nuts] HP 523B frequency counter & Sputnik

Tom Van Baak tvb at LeapSecond.com
Thu Oct 4 19:07:10 UTC 2007


> Tom Van Baak wrote:
>> A little known piece of Sputnik history...
>>      http://www.hparchive.com/Journals/HPJ-1957-09-Sputnik.pdf

Brooke Clarke wrote:
> I think it's more than fair to say sputnik is the grandfather of GPS.

Yeah, my first thought when I ran across that HPJ article was,
wow, even the first satellite had -- an oscillator! The other thing
to note is that the combination of Sputnik and Dr. Peterson (at
Stanford) were the "space segment" and "user segment"; two
phrases familiar to anyone reading introductions to GPS. No
"control segment", however.

If 40-year old Sputnik (quartz in space) is the grandfather, is
30-year old NTS-2 (cesium in space) the father of GPS? See:

http://www.leapsecond.com/history/Ashby-Relativity.htm

/tvb






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