Pulsars rotate at speeds ranging from one to hundreds of revolutions per second. These are celestial bodies, each with a diameter
Usually to find out the exact locationspacecraft use radio signals. They are sent between the ship and Earth. This can take a long time and also requires a large amount of powerful computing equipment.
If X-ray navigation is used, thissolves both of the above problems. But earlier, in order for such a system to work, it was necessary to transfer the initial position of the spacecraft - the starting point. Now scientists have created a system that does not need to send this advance information, so the spacecraft can navigate autonomously.
The authors note that the Earth's atmospherefilters out all X-rays, so you have to be in space to observe them. Pulsars emit electromagnetic radiation that looks like pulses. Each pulsar has its own characteristic signal, like a fingerprint. The authors now have records of X-rays from 2,000 or so pulsars and how they have changed over time.
So the researchers tried to determine the spacecraft's position within regions that are a few astronomical units in diameter, such as the size of Jupiter's orbit.
Algorithm developed by graduate student KevinLohan combines observations of numerous pulsars to determine all possible positions of the spacecraft. The algorithm handles intersections in two or three dimensions.
The results showed that if we observe pulsars with longer periods and small angular distances, we can reduce the number of possible positions for any ship.
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