* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Thursday, July 10, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Immersive sports and entertainment venue Cosm set to build its 5th location in Cleveland – WKYC

    Cosm Reveals Exciting Vision for Its 5th Immersive Sports and Entertainment Venue in Cleveland

    Monumental Sports & Entertainment’s Samantha Brady on the Power of the RSN’s Direct-to-Consumer Streaming Service Monumental+ – Sports Video Group

    Samantha Brady Reveals How Monumental+ is Transforming Sports Streaming with Direct-to-Consumer Access

    Moses Singer Welcomes Entertainment and Intellectual Property Partner Frederick Bimbler – Yahoo Finance

    Moses Singer Expands Team with New Entertainment and Intellectual Property Partner Frederick Bimbler

    Longhua District and Max-Matching Entertainments, supported by RWS Global forge strategic partnership to develop international IP-themed entertainment complex – Amusement Today

    Longhua District and Max-Matching Entertainments, supported by RWS Global forge strategic partnership to develop international IP-themed entertainment complex – Amusement Today

    Government whip to withdraw Entertainment Complex Bill on July 9 – Nation Thailand

    Government whip to withdraw Entertainment Complex Bill on July 9 – Nation Thailand

    Magicians and Battlebots light up Las Vegas entertainment scene – KSNV

    Magicians and Battlebots Take Las Vegas Entertainment by Storm

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    2025 WE Local Prague Recap: Inspiring Women in Engineering and Technology – Society of Women Engineers

    2025 WE Local Prague Recap: Inspiring Women in Engineering and Technology – Society of Women Engineers

    SMPTE Opens Early Bird Registration for Media Technology Summit – TVTechnology

    SMPTE Launches Early Bird Registration for Exciting Media Technology Summit

    Google Fiber puts Nokia network slicing technology to the test – Fierce Network

    Google Fiber Puts Nokia’s Network Slicing Technology to the Ultimate Test

    Kaseya Extends Community Investment with Addition of Technology Marketing Toolkit – Kaseya

    Kaseya Extends Community Investment with Addition of Technology Marketing Toolkit – Kaseya

    AI and the Trust Revolution: How Technology Is Transforming Human Connections – Foreign Affairs

    AI and the Trust Revolution: How Technology Is Transforming Human Connections – Foreign Affairs

    Technology And Construction Names Join Top Stock Lists: Check Out Additions To IBD 50, Big Cap 20 And More – Investor’s Business Daily

    Technology and Construction Leaders Surge Into Top Stock Rankings: See the Latest Additions to IBD 50, Big Cap 20, and More

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Immersive sports and entertainment venue Cosm set to build its 5th location in Cleveland – WKYC

    Cosm Reveals Exciting Vision for Its 5th Immersive Sports and Entertainment Venue in Cleveland

    Monumental Sports & Entertainment’s Samantha Brady on the Power of the RSN’s Direct-to-Consumer Streaming Service Monumental+ – Sports Video Group

    Samantha Brady Reveals How Monumental+ is Transforming Sports Streaming with Direct-to-Consumer Access

    Moses Singer Welcomes Entertainment and Intellectual Property Partner Frederick Bimbler – Yahoo Finance

    Moses Singer Expands Team with New Entertainment and Intellectual Property Partner Frederick Bimbler

    Longhua District and Max-Matching Entertainments, supported by RWS Global forge strategic partnership to develop international IP-themed entertainment complex – Amusement Today

    Longhua District and Max-Matching Entertainments, supported by RWS Global forge strategic partnership to develop international IP-themed entertainment complex – Amusement Today

    Government whip to withdraw Entertainment Complex Bill on July 9 – Nation Thailand

    Government whip to withdraw Entertainment Complex Bill on July 9 – Nation Thailand

    Magicians and Battlebots light up Las Vegas entertainment scene – KSNV

    Magicians and Battlebots Take Las Vegas Entertainment by Storm

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    2025 WE Local Prague Recap: Inspiring Women in Engineering and Technology – Society of Women Engineers

    2025 WE Local Prague Recap: Inspiring Women in Engineering and Technology – Society of Women Engineers

    SMPTE Opens Early Bird Registration for Media Technology Summit – TVTechnology

    SMPTE Launches Early Bird Registration for Exciting Media Technology Summit

    Google Fiber puts Nokia network slicing technology to the test – Fierce Network

    Google Fiber Puts Nokia’s Network Slicing Technology to the Ultimate Test

    Kaseya Extends Community Investment with Addition of Technology Marketing Toolkit – Kaseya

    Kaseya Extends Community Investment with Addition of Technology Marketing Toolkit – Kaseya

    AI and the Trust Revolution: How Technology Is Transforming Human Connections – Foreign Affairs

    AI and the Trust Revolution: How Technology Is Transforming Human Connections – Foreign Affairs

    Technology And Construction Names Join Top Stock Lists: Check Out Additions To IBD 50, Big Cap 20 And More – Investor’s Business Daily

    Technology and Construction Leaders Surge Into Top Stock Rankings: See the Latest Additions to IBD 50, Big Cap 20, and More

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

Lost in space? Just use relativity

December 27, 2023
in Science
Lost in space? Just use relativity
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Lost In Space? Just Use Relativity

Depiction of the three telescope system described in the paper. Credit: Paul McKee, Hoang Nguyen, Michael W. Kudenov, John A. Christian

One of the hardest things for many people to conceptualize when talking about how fast something is going is that they must ask, “Compared to what?” All motion only makes sense from a frame of reference, and many spacecraft traveling in the depths of the void lack any regular reference from which to understand how fast they’re going.

There have been several different techniques to try to solve this problem, but one of the ones that have been in development the longest is StarNAV—a way to navigate in space using only the stars.

Several projects named “StarNAV” seem to be ongoing at various stages of development, including a NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts grant for some researchers on the East Coast of the US and a small start-up company based on technology out of UC Irvine. In this case, we’ll look at the work done by the researchers, particularly a paper they released last year detailing some progress toward a prototype.

The technology developed by Paul McKee of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Hoang Nguyen and Michael Kudenov of North Carolina State, and John Christian of Georgia Tech is based on a specific feature of stars known as stellar aberration. As defined in the Special Theory of Relativity, stellar aberration occurs when the velocity of an observer changes the apparent distance between it and a star.

This technique has been used before; however, it has had wide error bands when calculating a spacecraft’s instantaneous velocity. Typically, existing solutions would use a large telescope to measure a property known as an “inter-star angle” between two stars in a relatively narrow field of view precisely. If it is precise enough, some pretty complex math can produce a spacecraft’s velocity from only one inter-star angle.

Getting a measurement that is precise enough is the tricky part. To accurately detect the position of an individual star in an inter-star pair, many telescopes have to have a narrow field of view (FOV). That narrow FOV means that only one star can be tracked per telescope, which requires a second telescope and a complicated metrology system to track the relative alignment of these telescopes.

Fraser discusses some of the difficulties of navigating in space.

The NIAC researchers came up with a method of using slightly less precise inter-star angle measurements but multiple measurements, and once again using fancy math to calculate an accurate velocity measurement without the complicated tracking systems.

The system described in the Acta Astronautica paper consists of three different telescopes offset from each other at known angles, each observing a different pair of stars. With these three slightly less precise measurements, an algorithm can still calculate an average stellar aberration and, therefore, a reasonable estimate of spacecraft velocity.

If there wasn’t enough math in this process already, the authors decided to prove the accuracy of their system by running some experiments using every mathematician’s favorite random test algorithm—a Monte Carlo simulation.

While they did find some confounding factors that must be dealt with in a calibration process, the simulation proved that, in theory, at least, the system would work with an accuracy compared to the best narrow FOV solutions currently available and would be much cheaper and easier to operate.

In a final proof of concept, the researchers also modeled how big such a system would be. They fit it into a 3U CubeSat chassis—measuring about 10cm x 30cm x 10cm. And because of the modularity of CubeSats designs, it might be possible to attach any such module onto another chassis as part of a fully-fledged mission.

That hasn’t happened yet, though, and it doesn’t appear that a complete prototype of this system has been built yet. Though, as mentioned above, there is a start-up looking to commercialize very similar technology, though mainly for Earth-based navigation as an alternative to GPS—they have several military contracts, who would be looking for ways to continue navigation if GPS happens to be knocked out of commission by enemy action.

As more and more spacecraft start venturing into deep space, improving how they calculate their velocity will become an ever-increasing problem. StarNAV seems well placed to do so—it just needs a bit more of a push into the prototyping stage to get there.

More information:
Paul McKee et al, StarNAV with a wide field-of-view optical sensor, Acta Astronautica (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2022.04.027

Citation:
Lost in space? Just use relativity (2023, December 26)
retrieved 27 December 2023
from https://phys.org/news/2023-12-lost-space.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Phys.org – https://phys.org/news/2023-12-lost-space.html

Tags: relativityscienceSpace
Previous Post

Dream Chaser is getting tested at NASA

Next Post

Regional conflict simmers: President Biden sends airstrikes to Iraq

2025 WE Local Prague Recap: Inspiring Women in Engineering and Technology – Society of Women Engineers

2025 WE Local Prague Recap: Inspiring Women in Engineering and Technology – Society of Women Engineers

July 10, 2025
Bulldogs Land Eight on Athlon Sports Preseason All-CUSA Team – LA Tech Athletics

Bulldogs Shine with Eight Players Named to Preseason All-CUSA Team

July 10, 2025
ECOLOGY ACTION CENTER – Ad from 2025-07-06 – The Pantagraph

See How the Ecology Action Center is Revolutionizing Environmental Change

July 10, 2025
Climate Disasters Like Texas Floods Moving Faster Than Science Can Keep Up – The Energy Mix

Climate Disasters Like Texas Floods Moving Faster Than Science Can Keep Up – The Energy Mix

July 10, 2025
The Best Science Fiction Novels to Read Right Now – The New York Times

Top Science Fiction Novels You Can’t Miss Right Now

July 10, 2025
This is the Summer of CoAqua. CoAqua Isn’t Just a Coconut Water — It’s a Lifestyle Brand That Disrupted the Hydration Game with Bold Flavors, Design-Forward Packaging, and a Good Mission – Nosh.com

This is the Summer of CoAqua. CoAqua Isn’t Just a Coconut Water — It’s a Lifestyle Brand That Disrupted the Hydration Game with Bold Flavors, Design-Forward Packaging, and a Good Mission – Nosh.com

July 10, 2025
Manchester United hope new stadium will host 2035 World Cup final, aim to finish project in 5 to 6 years – The New York Times

Manchester United hope new stadium will host 2035 World Cup final, aim to finish project in 5 to 6 years – The New York Times

July 10, 2025
Alaska is America’s worst state for business in 2025 as falling oil prices sink economy – CNBC

Alaska Braces for Toughest Business Climate in 2025 Amid Plummeting Oil Prices

July 10, 2025
Access Health CT expects significant drop in insurance enrollees as aid ends, Medicaid cut – CT Insider

Access Health CT Faces Steep Drop in Insurance Enrollments After Aid and Medicaid Reductions

July 10, 2025
The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics – Politico

Top Cartoonists Bring This Week’s Political Drama to Life

July 10, 2025

Categories

Archives

July 2025
MTWTFSS
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031 
« Jun    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (714)
  • Economy (737)
  • Entertainment (21,626)
  • General (15,816)
  • Health (9,774)
  • Lifestyle (744)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (739)
  • Politics (747)
  • Science (15,955)
  • Sports (21,236)
  • Technology (15,723)
  • World (720)

Recent News

2025 WE Local Prague Recap: Inspiring Women in Engineering and Technology – Society of Women Engineers

2025 WE Local Prague Recap: Inspiring Women in Engineering and Technology – Society of Women Engineers

July 10, 2025
Bulldogs Land Eight on Athlon Sports Preseason All-CUSA Team – LA Tech Athletics

Bulldogs Shine with Eight Players Named to Preseason All-CUSA Team

July 10, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version