Apr 18, 2018

NASA’s new Galactic Positioning System could lead to truly autonomous spacecraft

NASA’s new Galactic Positioning System could lead to truly autonomous spacecraft
By Tristan Greene


Humans have navigated by starlight for thousands of years, but NASA has a new appreciation for the twinkling bodies in our night sky. Using perfectly timed X-ray flashes from pulsars, scientists are building a Galactic Position System that will work quite similar to the global one here on earth. NASA sends an unmanned spacecraft to photograph a distant planet or moon in a process similar to pointing a rifle at the sky and firing a bullet. That projectile travels through space and takes pictures as it zooms by its target from a safe distance. It can be steered, to a…

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April 17, 2018 at 06:56PM
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