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Pulsar Navigation for Deep Space
Centauri Dreams ^ | 11/29/10 | PAUL GILSTER

Posted on 11/29/2010 7:02:46 PM PST by KevinDavis

We’ve seen some remarkable feats of celestial navigation lately, not the least of which has been the flyby of comet Hartley 2 by the EPOXI mission. But as we continue our push out into the Solar System, we’re going to run into the natural limits of our navigation methods. The Deep Space Network can track a spacecraft from the ground and achieve the kind of phenomenal accuracy that can thread a Cassini probe through a gap in the rings of Saturn. But positional errors grow with distance, and can mount up to 4 kilometers per AU of distance from the Earth

(Excerpt) Read more at centauri-dreams.org ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: space

1 posted on 11/29/2010 7:02:49 PM PST by KevinDavis
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To: LittleBillyInfidel; LucyT; HighWheeler; ChuckHam; Elderberry; ColdOne; Tolkien; FreedomPoster; ...



2 posted on 11/29/2010 7:04:55 PM PST by KevinDavis (I have no problem with a black president. But the one we have now is yellow to the core)
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To: KevinDavis
"But positional errors grow with distance, and can mount up to 4 kilometers per AU of distance from the Earth"

That means if your trying to land on a planet in the Andromeda Galaxy, you're gonna miss.... Of course, by the time anything we sent got there, we'd all be dead anyway, so it won't matter to us. lol

3 posted on 11/29/2010 7:09:33 PM PST by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: KevinDavis

Real men don’t need maps.


4 posted on 11/29/2010 7:21:31 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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To: KevinDavis

Well, then,would that necessate the naming of the spacetime zone identifying the pulsar you are navigating from, eg standard B1913+16.

Unless it is not necessary to use other pulsars being one could cover so broad an area of space it won’t be necessary.

What about measured time itself, (clock time). Independant from Earth and without the relation of sun to it, would they also create a different method of keeping time? Pulsar clock time?


5 posted on 11/29/2010 7:23:58 PM PST by Beowulf9
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To: KevinDavis
How about a Galaxy Positioning System?


6 posted on 11/29/2010 7:24:20 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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To: Beowulf9
What about measured time itself

You are forgetting Relativity. The faster you go, the slower time advances.

7 posted on 11/29/2010 7:36:10 PM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: Calvin Locke

“You are forgetting Relativity. The faster you go, the slower time advances.”

So they’ll refer to earthtime?


8 posted on 11/29/2010 7:59:10 PM PST by Beowulf9
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To: Beowulf9

I can’t quite remember. I had a course in Special Relativity about 30 years ago. A one month, one credit course.


9 posted on 11/29/2010 8:16:33 PM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: KevinDavis
Maybe they could use some old technology, add a tiller to star craft.
10 posted on 11/29/2010 8:21:09 PM PST by LoneRangerMassachusetts (The meek shall not inherit the Earth)
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To: Calvin Locke
I can’t quite remember. I had a course in Special Relativity about 30 years ago. A one month, one credit course.

Bet it feels like a lifetime ago...

(Thank you, I'll be here all week...)

11 posted on 11/30/2010 7:39:17 AM PST by JRios1968 (What is the difference between 0bama and his dog, Bo? Bo has papers.)
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To: JRios1968
Not really. I was married for about 10 years, and eventually, that seemed like forever...

Every thing else just seems to fly by.

12 posted on 11/30/2010 9:11:02 AM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: UCANSEE2

I TOLD you to ask for directions back there, but noooooo, real aliens don't ask for directions. So, how many parsecs has it been since we've seen a dilithium station Mr. Smartypants???

13 posted on 11/30/2010 12:59:40 PM PST by colorado tanker
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To: colorado tanker

EXCELLENT !!!


14 posted on 11/30/2010 6:38:22 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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