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China Launches World's First Pulsar Navigation Satellite (ibtimes.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the first-of-a-kind dept.

hackingbear writes: After launching the world's first quantum communication satellite this year, China today successfully launched the world's first pulsar-based navigation satellite (Warning: may be paywalled, alternate source), which will conduct in-orbit experiments using pulsar detectors to demonstrate new technologies. The X-ray pulsar navigation satellite XPNAV-1 was sent skyward at 7:42 AM (local time) atop a Long March 11 solid-fueled rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China's northwest. China's new system is expected to be a significant improvement over the earth-based systems currently used by spacecraft as it would eliminate the time delay with sending signals back to Earth and processing.

3 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. NASA NuStar 2012 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    You realize that their satellite didn't use quantum entanglement and didn't communicate anything. Nor will it, because the 'successful entanglement' filtering signal needs to be sent separately by other means. Nor will it ever do anything useful, because the 'successful entanglement' signal is sent using whatever traditional encryption is available. So what you actually have is nothing more secure than a line of sight laser.

    Article suggests its a pulsar detector for radioastronomy, for space probes to use these pulsars for navigation. And its certainly not the world first, e.g. Nasa NuSTAR is an x-ray space based telescope for looking at pulsars.

  2. Re:Eliminate the time delay? by bruce_the_loon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    At the moment the spacecraft need data fed to them from Earth about their position and that takes time because of the speed of light.

    With this system, the spacecraft itself can calculate its position using the pulsars as if they were GPS satellites. So no delay caused by the comms to and from Earth.

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  3. Editors why can't you write a decent summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Dear editors, please write better summaries.. Something such as below is much more informative...

    China today successfully launched the world's first pulsar-based navigation satellite. The X-ray pulsar navigation satellite XPNAV-1 was sent skyward at 7:42 AM (local time) atop a Long March 11 solid-fueled rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China's northwest. Pulsar navigation allows the satellite to determine its position in space by using the periodic signal emitted from pulsars, much like earth-based GPS. This will eliminate time delays incurred using ground based navigation.