OK , judgment blowing : A scientist at the Observatoire de Paris basically invented GPS for interstellar traveler : Simply melodic phrase in the radio signals from four pulsar , munch some numbers have to do with relativity ( natch ) and read your position within the coltsfoot — to within a meter .
It makes sense . GPS is , after all , a system of satellites throb veritable radio signals , which are triangulated by a receiver which must , even this close to earth , calculate for some relativity . Like the GPS satellites , the pulsar ’ locations are known , and also like the satellites , the pulsars pulse ( hence the name ) at live unconstipated intervals , measure out in milliseconds .
Bertolomé Coll and his associate Albert Tarantola influence that the item zero of the theoretic pulsar location organization would be midnight on January 1 , 2001 , at the titillatingly advert Interplanetary Scintillation Array in the UK , an homage , since this is the first radio telescope to clean up pulsars . Once you have the zero spot locked in , your starship will know its whereabouts in space and meter , and possibly how to steer clear of stars or asteroid field when making that anathemise jump to hyperspace . [ Technology Review ; image fromNASA ]
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