X Ray Navigation

In the future, and if we get to travel to faraway places in our solar system and beyond we will need an advanced positioning system that works like the GPS systems we have on earth. This idea has already been explored by scientist, and navigation in space can be done using pulsars.

X Ray Navigation a proposed technology that is similar to the GPS technology. The company that developed the technology, Microcosm, Inc. made a proposal to the US Government for a grant.[1] The idea of the technology is to compare signals from pulsars detected on the spaceship with ones previously detected on earth. By doing so, One can calculate the position of the spacecraft by comparing the frequency of the incoming X-Ray pulses with the frequency of pulses obtained from the network of pulsars on Earth.[2] Knowing the position of those pulsars in space and the distance between the spaceship and each one, one can know exactly where they are in space.

 

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[1]Microcosm, Inc. Form B Proposal Summary (2005)
[2] P.Graven, J. Collins, S. Sheikh, J. Hanson, P. Ray, K. Wood, XNAV for Deep Space Navigation. (2008)