Simulation demonstrates feasibility of autonomous interplanetary travel

National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and Leicester University have published a paper that reveals a spacecraft’s position in space - in the direction of a particular pulsar - can be calculated autonomously using a small X-ray telescope on board the craft, to an accuracy of 2km.

According to Leicester University, the method uses X-rays emitted from pulsars, which can be used to work out the position of a craft in space in 3D to an accuracy of 30km at the distance of Neptune. Pulsars are dead stars that emit radiation in the form of X-rays and other electromagnetic waves. For ‘millisecond pulsars’, the pulses of radiation occur with the regularity and precision of an atomic clock and could be used much like GPS in space.

The paper, published in Experimental Astronomy, details simulations undertaken using data, such as the pulsar positions and a craft’s distance from the Sun, for a European Space Agency feasibility study of the concept.