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Post Info TOPIC: Stella Navigation
Blobrana


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Spacecraft navigation
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Pulsars could be the future of spacecraft navigation

Scientists at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the University of Leicester have been commissioned by the European Space Agency (ESA) to investigate the feasibility of using Pulsars to navigate spacecraft in deep space. The findings of the research will advise ESA strategy and if feasible this technique may in future revolutionise the way spacecraft navigate in the outer Solar System and beyond.
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Blobrana


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RE: Stella Navigation
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Title: A null frame for spacetime positioning by means of pulsating sources
Authors: Angelo Tartaglia, Matteo Luca Ruggiero, Emiliano Capolongo
(Version v2)

We introduce an operational approach to the use of pulsating sources, located at spatial infinity, for defining a relativistic positioning and navigation system, based on the use of four-dimensional bases of null four-vectors, in flat spacetime. As a prototypical case, we show how pulsars can be used to define such a positioning system. The reception of the pulses for a set of different sources whose positions in the sky and periods are assumed to be known allows the determination of the user's coordinates and spacetime trajectory, in the reference frame where the sources are at rest. In doing so, the phases of the received pulses play the role of coordinates in the null frame. We describe our approach in flat Minkowski spacetime, and discuss the validity of this and other approximations considered.

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Blobrana


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Will Pulsar Networks Guide Space Missions Through Milky Way?

The European Space Agency's Ariadna initiative is studying a totally awesome navigation system that creams the one you'll find in your new Elite Cobra MkIII: they are examining the feasibility of navigation relying on millisecond pulsars, rotating neutron stars that spin faster than 40 revolutions per second.  The pulses of these dead stars can be used as exquisitely accurate timing mechanisms.
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