Using Pulsars For Spacecraft Navigation

Jimme Blue writes "The use of pulsars as a GPS analogue holds the promise of fixing a spacecraft's location to within 5 km, anywhere in the galaxy. While not ready for immediate use, it may be ready for use within the Solar System in the next 10-15 years. From the article: '"The principle is so simple that it will definitely have applications," said Prof Werner Becker from the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching. "These pulsars are everywhere in the Universe and their flashing is so predictable that it makes such an approach really straightforward," he told BBC News.'"

Comments

Really old idea

[GryMor]

This has been in use in sci-fi since the dawn of space opera. It gained sufficient use that it was internalized to the point that it's rarely mentioned anymore, you could even say it's why most sci-fi expects a reliable knowledge of location and date even in the face of miss-folds and unplanned time travel.

Re:Visibility is an issue

[busyqth]

even within a galaxy, it's probably a good reference. But that's definitely a risky method if you start moving out of the galactic plane.

Now that's too bad because I was planning on moving out of the galactic plane sometime later this year.

Re:Too Late.

[Samantha Wright]

I assume you took this prior art as inspiration? (Incidentally, I also tend to recall Sagan mentioning pulsars in the first episode of Cosmos being once believed to be a form of alien navigation. Guess that's why he and Drake put them on the plaque.)

Re:Take Jersey Shore with you

[Anonymous Coward]

Take Jersey Shore with you