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Using Pulsars As GPS For Starships
cold fjord writes with an excerpt from Science Codex: "CSIRO scientists have written software that could guide spacecraft to Alpha Centauri ... Dr George Hobbs (CSIRO) and his colleagues study pulsars — small spinning stars that deliver regular 'blips' or 'pulses' of radio waves and, sometimes, X-rays. Usually the astronomers are interested in measuring, very precisely, when the pulsar pulses arrive in the solar system. Slight deviations from the expected arrival times can give clues about the behaviour of a pulsar itself ... 'But we can also work backwards,' said Dr Hobbs. 'We can use information from pulsars to very precisely determine the position of our telescopes.' 'If the telescopes were on board a spacecraft, then we could get the position of the spacecraft.' Observations of at least four pulsars, every seven days, would be required. ... A paper (paywalled) describing in detail how the system would work has been accepted for publication by the journal Advances in Space Research."
(Here is a related story from the same source.)
I'd like to congratulate Dr Hobbs and his team for inventing a navigation system for Starships. Now, I look forward to Zefram Cochrane's work on the Warp Drive getting completed!
This is like Karl Benz figuring out road signs.
If we currently do not have a way to travel to the stars, then what does it matter how we find our way among them?
Go back to living in your cave.
I demand partial access to the papers!