Measuring & Mapping - Overview
Where, how far, and how much? People have invented an astonishing array of devices to answer seemingly simple questions like these. Measuring and mapping objects in the Museum's collections include the instruments of the famous—Thomas Jefferson's thermometer and a pocket compass used by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their expedition across the American West. A timing device was part of the pioneering motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge in the late 1800s. Time measurement is represented in clocks from simple sundials to precise chronometers for mapping, surveying, and finding longitude. Everyday objects tell part of the story, too, from tape measures and electrical meters to more than 300 scales to measure food and drink. Maps of many kinds fill out the collections, from railroad surveys to star charts.
"Measuring & Mapping - Overview" showing 657 items.
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Goldstone Master Clock and Distribution Assembly
- Description
- This is timing equipment from NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in the Mojave Desert near Barstow, Calif. It was installed at Goldstone about 1984. Based on specifications from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the assembly was designed and made by TRAK Microwave of Tampa, Florida, and used at Goldstone to provide time codes for the ground station and space navigation until 2006. While in service, the assembly timed an impressive list of missions, including the two Voyagers launched in 1977 and the highly publicized Mars missions in 1996, 2001, 2003 and 2005. The equipment could track about thirty missions simultaneously and served about one hundred users.
- The assembly contains three clocks—Clocks A, B and C (2008.0145.01, .02, and .03)—that work together as the master clock. Also known as a triple redundant clock, the three together "vote" on a single time of day, with agreement between two of the three determining the correct time. The master clock receives a reference frequency from a suite of atomic frequency standards (one primary and three backups). The master clock converts that frequency into time codes. Reference frequency signals and time codes are in turn distributed by the time insertion distribution system (2008.0145.04) to user locations in NASA's Deep Space Network for tracking spacecraft and radioastronomy experiments.
- Time and frequency are essential to the Deep Space Network, a group of three communications facilities placed approximately 120 degrees apart around the world at Goldstone, near Madrid, Spain and near Canberra, Australia. The network synchronizes the three stations plus the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, to an accuracy of microseconds through comparisons with each other and with time from the Global Positioning System.
- date made
- ca 1984
- ID Number
- 2008.0145.03
- accession number
- 2008.0145
- catalog number
- 2008.0145.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Goldstone Time Insertion Distribution System
- Description
- This is timing equipment from NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in the Mojave Desert near Barstow, Calif. It was installed at Goldstone about 1984. Based on specifications from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the assembly was designed and made by TRAK Microwave of Tampa, Florida, and used at Goldstone to provide time codes for the ground station and space navigation until 2006. While in service, the assembly timed an impressive list of missions, including the two Voyagers launched in 1977 and the highly publicized Mars missions in 1996, 2001, 2003 and 2005. The equipment could track about thirty missions simultaneously and served about one hundred users.
- The assembly contains three clocks—Clocks A, B and C (2008.0145.01, .02, and .03)—that work together as the master clock. Also known as a triple redundant clock, the three together "vote" on a single time of day, with agreement between two of the three determining the correct time. The master clock receives a reference frequency from a suite of atomic frequency standards (one primary and three backups). The master clock converts that frequency into time codes. Reference frequency signals and time codes are in turn distributed by the time insertion distribution system (2008.0145.04) to user locations in NASA's Deep Space Network for tracking spacecraft and radioastronomy experiments.
- Time and frequency are essential to the Deep Space Network, a group of three communications facilities placed approximately 120 degrees apart around the world at Goldstone, near Madrid, Spain and near Canberra, Australia. The network synchronizes the three stations plus the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, to an accuracy of microseconds through comparisons with each other and with time from the Global Positioning System.
- date made
- ca 1984
- ID Number
- 2008.0145.04
- accession number
- 2008.0145
- catalog number
- 2008.0145.04
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Goldstone Quartz Oscillator
- Description
- Precision frequency standards provide crucial reference radio signals for deep space tracking and navigation. This instrument was installed in 1961 at NASA’s Goldstone tracking station in the Mojave Desert, approximately 45 miles from Barstow, California for the earliest Ranger missions exploring the moon. It provided reference radio frequencies between the station and the spacecraft. It became a secondary frequency standard (see strip of tape on object) when rubidium frequency standards, more precise than the quartz standard, were introduced in 1962 for the Mariner missions.
- This frequency standard was made by Sulzer Laboratories Inc., Rockville, MD, about 1960. It contains two Model 5A oscillators, serial no. 410 and 482 in a standard electronics rack mount. The output signals are 5 MHz, 1 MHz and 500 kHz. Each oscillator uses the Bliley BG61AH-5, 5-MHz AT-cut resonator.
- Peter Sulzer invented the first fully transistorized quartz oscillator. The Model 5A is a commercial standard patterned after the AN/URQ-10 developed for military use.
- Reference:
- 1. Norton, J., J. Cloeren and P. Sulzer, "Brief History of the Development of Ultra Precise Oscillators for Ground and Space Applications," Proceedings of IEEE 50thFrequency Control Symposium (1996), 47-57.
- date made
- ca 1960
- ID Number
- 2008.0145.05
- accession number
- 2008.0145
- catalog number
- 2008.0145.05
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Magellan "NAV 1000" Hand-Held GPS Receiver
- Description
- The Magellan Corporation, founded in 1986, worked to develop a handheld, battery-powered GPS receiver for the civilian market. Launched in 1988, the NAV 1000 was the first hand-held receiver introduced to the consumer market. Magellan anticipated that people would use these devices for hiking, boating and other recreational purposes.
- date made
- 1988
- maker
- Magellan Systems Corporation
- ID Number
- 2010.0118.01
- accession number
- 2010.0118
- catalog number
- 2010.0118.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
MDIS "PathMaster" GPS Control Display Unit
- Description
- In the late 1990s, Magellan released the first turn-by-turn navigation system for civilian drivers. The PathMaster hard-wired into a car, allowed users to see a map on a display screen and follow directions. The large computer received GPS data from an antenna and sent it to the display. A small card with a portable hard drive containing map data was inserted into the computer.
- date made
- ca 1997
- maker
- Magellan Systems Corporation
- ID Number
- 2010.0118.13
- accession number
- 2010.0118
- catalog number
- 2010.0118.13
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
MDIS "PathMaster" GPS Information Computer
- Description
- In the late 1990s, Magellan released the first turn-by-turn navigation system for civilian drivers. The PathMaster hard-wired into a car, allowed users to see a map on a display screen and follow directions. The large computer received GPS data from an antenna and sent it to the display. A small card with a portable hard drive containing map data was inserted into the computer.
- date made
- ca 1997
- maker
- Magellan Systems Corporation
- ID Number
- 2010.0118.14
- accession number
- 2010.0118
- catalog number
- 2010.0118.14
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Magellan Developmental Breadboard for GPS Receiver
- Description
- The Magellan Systems Corporation produced some of the earliest handheld GPS units for civilian use. In 1986 company engineers began experimenting with electronic mockups. This is the earliest “breadboard” receiver. Together with a keyboard (2010.0154.02) and power supply (2010.0154.03), this object was used to test circuitry and components at Magellan while developing the first civilian GPS receivers.
- maker
- Magellan Systems Corporation
- ID Number
- 2010.0154.01
- accession number
- 2010.0154
- catalog number
- 2010.0154.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Magellan Developmental Display Screen and Keyboard for GPS Receiver
- Description
- The Magellan Systems Corporation produced some of the earliest handheld GPS units for civilian use. In 1986 company engineers began experimenting with electronic mockups. This is the earliest keyboard. Together with the "breadboard" (2010.0154.01) and power supply (2010.0154.03), this object was used to test circuitry and components at Magellan while developing the first civilian GPS receiver.
- maker
- Magellan Systems Corporation
- ID Number
- 2010.0154.02
- accession number
- 2010.0154
- catalog number
- 2010.0154.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Magellan Developmental Power Supply for GPS Receiver
- Description
- The Magellan Systems Corporation produced some of the earliest handheld GPS units for civilian use. In 1986 company engineers began experimenting with electronic mockups. This is the earliest power supply unit. Together with a "breadboard" receiver (2010.0154.01) and a keyboard (2010.0154.02), this object was used to test circuitry and components at Magellan while developing the first civilian GPS receiver.
- maker
- Magellan Systems Corporation
- ID Number
- 2010.0154.03
- accession number
- 2010.0154
- catalog number
- 2010.0154.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Symmetricom Chip Scale Atomic Clock (CSAC)
- Description
- Chip-scale atomic clocks (CSAC) have components comparable in size to the integrated circuits (“chips”) used in modern electronic equipment. They were first developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2004. The first commercial version is this cesium CSAC with model number SA.45s, produced by Symmetricom, Inc., in Beverley, Mass., and sold beginning in 2011. Its “physics package” (the set of components that generate the cesium frequency) occupies less than 1 cubic centimeter, thousands of times smaller and lighter than the beam tube of a conventional cesium atomic clock and operates on very different principles. Furthermore, the energy consumption is much less, making extended operation on battery power feasible. Developing such a small clock required many innovations in several disciplines, including semiconductor laser technology, silicon processing, vacuum-packing and firmware algorithms. Its portability and low energy consumption have made possible many new applications, such as geophysical sensors, backpack jammers for improvised explosive devices, backpack military radios, unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and military GPS receivers, but, as of 2013, it has not yet been used in space.
- maker
- Symmetricom, Incorporated
- ID Number
- 2011.0207.01
- accession number
- 2011.0207
- catalog number
- 2011.0207.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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