Navigator

A navigator is a person trained to a vessel's position relative to grid coordinates using terrestrial or celestial techniques.

In days of old, a navigator worked from a known position or fix. Using time, heading and speed, the navigator would compute a Dead Reckoning (DR) position that could be used to obtain a fix based upon a Line of Position (LOP). When navigating by land, an LOP can be used from a prominent point as sighted by a sextant. Waypoints, or desired fixes, were used as a point for a computational DR positions along a route on a navigational chart. Where the LOP intersects with the DR becomes the new fix and is entered into the navigator's log as the basis for navigation from this point on. The more LOPs obtained directly determine the fix accuracy.

In modern navigation theory, one LOP and a DR equate to a Most Probable Position (MPP) that can be used as a fix if the navigator deems it the best and most accurate available. Two or three LOPs are considered more desirable because the intersection of LOPs is the definition of a fix. Three LOPS, whose lines form an equilateral triangle, was considered the best fix as the MPP is within the triangle. The tighter the triangle; the tighter the fix. This is essentially two dimensional navigation.

In the open seas navigators truly mastered their profession and earned their bacon. A navigator would navigate by celestial observations of the sun, moon, stars and planets. The early Egyptians and Phoenicians charted the known Old World. Their charts were highly prized because terrestrial LOPs could be computed using their depiction of land and sea. Two of the more accomplished navigators ever were Magellan and Vasco da Gama. A sailing ship's Captain often was the navigator because they were wizards in determining new routes to undiscovered territory.

Eventually their navigational feats around the world inspired a English competition to devise an accurate chronometer or watch that could accurately keep time which is a very important entering argument in celestial navigation. The invention of the atomic clock can be seen as the direct of the chronometer and the requirement for accurate time signals. NON-CANON follows: Atomic clocks in the 21st century eventually gave way to time buoys as developed by Doctor Salvador Pacheco, who won an intergalactic competition to create The Atomic Clock in the Stars Device (ACSD), which enabled starship navigators like Checkov aboard the USS Enterprise to navigate amongst the stars. NON-CANON ends.

Navigation in the air used the same DR procedures and incorporated radar, basic navigation systems (BNS that basically navigated using time, heading and airspeed to compute a DR position using Doppler signals) and Inertial Navigation Systems (INS). LORAN and Omega were early radio based systems that preceded INS. Aerial navigation is three dimensional navigation.

During the 1960s, the United States of America launched the first satellite, Transit, that was used by the US military. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the United States Air Force (USAF), launched a series of satellites that enable Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to navigate with pinpoint precision from "Point A to Point B". A GPS syncs its time signal with the satellites to determine its position determined by the intersection to of the satellite LOPs.

Sputnik, the first satellite launched by the mid 20th century nation known as Russia, involved complicated three dimensional navigation that is depicted in the opening scenes of Star Trek: Enterprise.

Prior to Zepram Cochrane's launch of the first human warp capable starship, the Vulcans devised a series of star charts that were highly prized for the star trek to other worlds. Starfleet (a direct descendant of the USAF, and the United Federation of Planets (UFP) would eventually establish a treaty with the Vulcans for usage of their star charts.