Just Think of It as a Big Eye in the Sky . . . Watching

There is little but prairie surrounding the carefully guarded buildings. From the time authorized personnel slide their personalized badges through the card reader and punch in a four-digit access code, they have 15 seconds to pass through a door leading to the master control station.

Down a long hallway, seven people in blue jumpsuits work at computer terminals. At their charge is the planet’s largest constellation of satellites, 26 in all, each the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, hurling through space at 8,600 mph.

“We have about 165 great Americans keeping this system operational 24 hours a day,” says Lt. Col. Joe Squatrito, commander of the 2nd Space Operations Squadron.

Nearby is a room where temperature and humidity are controlled and time, monitored by the U.S. Naval Observatory, is broken down to 370-trillionths of a second.

All this security, all the satellites, all the precise work of all these great Americans can help save lives in war. In peace, they can guide emergency workers to victims of fires or earthquakes, or help locate you if you are lost or stranded. They can also help athletes train.

And when you’re teeing off at the Pelican Hill Golf Club, overlooking the scenic Pacific shore south of Newport Beach, they can help save you from the bunkers.

The Global Positioning System was developed as a military navigation tool, first used in Somalia and later in the Persian Gulf, guiding troops through desert terrain void of geographical reference points.

But in the private sector, it has triggered an all-out sprint to develop new applications as GPS, a means of pinpointing location, is integrated with communications networks, mapping systems and other technologies.

Last year, Vice President Al Gore predicted that GPS would become an $8-billion industry by the end of the century. Some say it will change how we live.

And here behind locked doors at Falcon Air Force Base is where the frenzy quietly begins. If you have ever been asked, “Where are you?” or have ever awakened and wondered that yourself, these folks can truly tell you.

In terms of latitude, longitude and even altitude, GPS quickly provides coordinates to anyone with a receiver. Through GPS technology, virtually every square inch on the planet is given an address.

GPS allows us to establish Point A, a crucial bit of information if we’re trying to get to Point B, whether we’re in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, a rental car, police unit, airplane, sailboat, golf cart or on foot.

Receivers, decreasing in size and price, are available for less than $200 and approach the size of a wristwatch. Some systems are so accurate they are used in surveying and mapping, measuring the growth of mountains, the movement of glaciers.

“They’re going to continue coming up with things we haven’t even thought of yet because it’s so precise,” Squatrito says. “We’re getting it down to the point where I can go find somebody, walk right up to them in pitch-black darkness and, boom, bump right into him.”

The system became operational in 1993 with less than a dozen satellites and limited coverage capabilities. Global coverage, requiring at least 24 satellites, began two years ago. The system also transmits time, guaranteeing accuracy within 28 nanoseconds (billionths of a second), and detects nuclear detonations anywhere on Earth.

The satellites transmit codes on two frequencies, one limited to military use. It’s more precise than the code available to civilians, which is intentionally degraded out of concerns that it might be used against the military.

Last year, President Clinton issued a directive to bring the strength and accuracy of the civilian code closer to that of the military. And private industry already has developed technology to increase accuracy, in some cases to the foot.

Or even the centimeter.

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In everyday life, of course, knowing our latitude, longitude and altitude isn’t all that helpful.

“GPS by itself is sort of like electricity by itself,” says Glen Gibbons, editor of GPS World magazine. “Until you have created a tool and integrated it with other information and other technologies, it doesn’t do much for you.”

Seeing potential requires vision. Charles Trimble had quit his job at Hewlett-Packard and started a business in the late 1970s before he heard about the coming of GPS, a technology that grew from concern about navigation shortcomings during the Vietnam War.

“I knew it was going to be a long time coming,” Trimble says, “and I was wondering how any small company could figure out how to get in at the beginning and survive until it became a reality.”

Trimble turned to history and Alexander Graham Bell.

“When he came up with the telephone, obviously he didn’t see the telecommunication industry that we’re exploring today,” Trimble says.

“The early GPS was a lot like the telephone in terms of being something new from an information utility standpoint. So we could stretch our minds by looking at what happened over the course of a hundred years from his invention to the present to see what might happen with GPS. It was when we started thinking in those terms, rather than thinking in the reality of the hardware, that we could start seeing how it was going to change people’s lives.”

Trimble, who also chairs the U.S. GPS Industry Council, now heads the world’s largest manufacturer of GPS equipment. Based in Sunnyvale, Trimble Navigation has about 1,100 employees and last year showed revenues of $235 million.

In the future, Trimble says, GPS will further expand its uses. It will help marathon runners keep a steady pace. If you want to run at a 6.4-minute per mile clip, he says, a wrist receiver will beep if you deviate.

If you are training for a marathon, you will be able to measure changes in your heart rate based on the degree of incline.

Some cars already are equipped with GPS electronic mapping systems that guide drivers to their destinations and avoid traffic congestion.

The Irvine Police Department uses a tracking and navigation system, which not only gives locations of marked units but also gives direction of travel and speed.

Susan Thayer, the department’s Communications Bureau supervisor, says in one case they became concerned when they were unable to reach an officer by radio. They located his car through the GPS system and sent another patrol unit to check on him. Fortunately, Thayer says, it turned out the officer was fine, but his radio wasn’t working.

(The Los Angeles Police Department currently does not use the technology, but three helicopters on order are equipped with GPS navigation capabilities.)

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Systems equipped with electronic voices are helping the blind find their ways. In Japan, elderly people who wander off may soon be wearing receivers so they can easily be found. Parents also will give them to their children.

Airlines are finding more efficient routes. Overnight delivery services are tracking down packages. Trucking companies are monitoring their fleets. Firefighters are arriving sooner.

Remember those bench scenes in “Forrest Gump”? Cinematographer Don Burgess, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the film, used GPS, integrated with sun data, to determine months in advance the exact time the sun would be in the right position to shoot the scene.

And at the Pelican Hill Golf Club, carts are equipped with ProShot Golf’s OmniGolf units. In 1995, ProShot installed systems at four courses. Last year, the figure jumped to 35. This year, ProShot expects to deliver 70, and the five-year goal is 500.

As you study the pin in the distance, a monitor tells you how far you are from the green, the bunkers, the water. It describes the slant of the green.

Movements of carts can be monitored on a computer screen in the pro shop. If you’re lagging behind, you may get a message asking you to speed up play. If there’s lightning in the area, you’re notified to return immediately to the clubhouse.

Some golfers reflect the concern that GPS is an intrusion, the closing in of Big Brother. The reason they’re on the course in the first place is to escape the messages, the pace, the technology. They’re uncomfortable knowing the movement of their cart is monitored.

Such complaints usually are short-lived, says Mark deGorter, ProShot vice president of marketing and sales. They subside, he says, when golfers see that the system has improved their game by three or four strokes.