CSIRO scientists have written software that could guide spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, show that the planet Nibiru doesn’t exist … and prove that the Earth goes around the Sun.
Pulsars are small spinning stars that deliver regular 'blips' or 'pulses' of radio waves and, sometimes, X-rays.
Scientists proposed pulsar navigation as early as 1974. Putting it into practice has recently come closer, with the development of fairly small, lightweight X-ray detectors that could receive the X-ray pulses that certain pulsars emit. NASA is exploring the technique.
"For deep-space navigation, we would use pulsars that had been observed for many years with radio telescopes such as Parkes, so that the timing of their pulses is very well measured," said CSIRO's Dr Dick Manchester, a member of the research team. "Then on board the spacecraft you'd use an X-ray telescope, which is much smaller and lighter."
Dr Hobbs and his colleagues have made a very detailed simulation of a spacecraft navigating autonomously to Mars using this combination of technologies and their TEMPO2 software.
"The spacecraft can determine its position to within about 20 km, and its velocity to within 10 cm per second," said Dr Hobbs. "To our knowledge, this is the best accuracy anyone has ever been able to demonstrate."
"Unlike previous work, we've taken into account that real pulsars are not quite perfect, they have timing glitches and so on. We’ve allowed for that."
Read more »![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
Pulsars are small spinning stars that deliver regular 'blips' or 'pulses' of radio waves and, sometimes, X-rays.
Scientists proposed pulsar navigation as early as 1974. Putting it into practice has recently come closer, with the development of fairly small, lightweight X-ray detectors that could receive the X-ray pulses that certain pulsars emit. NASA is exploring the technique.
"For deep-space navigation, we would use pulsars that had been observed for many years with radio telescopes such as Parkes, so that the timing of their pulses is very well measured," said CSIRO's Dr Dick Manchester, a member of the research team. "Then on board the spacecraft you'd use an X-ray telescope, which is much smaller and lighter."
Dr Hobbs and his colleagues have made a very detailed simulation of a spacecraft navigating autonomously to Mars using this combination of technologies and their TEMPO2 software.
"The spacecraft can determine its position to within about 20 km, and its velocity to within 10 cm per second," said Dr Hobbs. "To our knowledge, this is the best accuracy anyone has ever been able to demonstrate."
"Unlike previous work, we've taken into account that real pulsars are not quite perfect, they have timing glitches and so on. We’ve allowed for that."
Read more »
