The Williams College Department of Physics and Astronomy will purchase equipment to receive and study time and frequency signals from Global Positioning Satellite transmitters. An existing atomic hydrogen maser frequency standard will provide a stable frequency reference for comparing signals from different satellites and for comparing via computer link the satellite signals received at Williamstown, MA, and at the National Bureau of Standards in Boulder, CO. Applications to navigation and solar system ranging and to time and frequency transfer between remote sites will illustrate the power of this new technology and its value to science. The telemetry technology will itself be studied using the receiver's own diagnostic displays. Special teaching lab modules using this equipment will illustrate the fundamental properties of space and time that students in introductory physics courses have been learning in class and will introduce them to state-of-the-art technology. The equipment will provide a basis for a new course designed to introduce students not intending a science major to modern notions of space and time and their relationship to modern technology. The equipment will also be used by Senior Honors and other students doing research projects with our experimental low temperature atomic hydrogen maser. In addition to NSF support, participants will contribute approximately an additional 15% toward the costs of the program.
