Tags: NASA, GPS, International Space Station
Publication: Spectrum.IEEE.org
Publication Date: 06/04/2013

Technologists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., created what they believe is the world’s first “pulsar-on-a-table,” a laboratory system shown here for testing emerging X-ray navigation technologies. Image credit: NASA/ Pat Izzo

A NASA team has developed a new system that could allow them to test an “interplanetary GPS.” The system, called pulsar navigation, would allow users to accurately navigate through the solar system and beyond without relying so much in Earth-based infrastructure.

Space navigation currently relies on a network of earth stations that beam radio waves out to the craft to help it navigate. As the spacecraft moves further away from our planet, the system becomes less and less reliable.

The idea behind the new technique would be to allow the vehicle to calculate its own position independently by relying on a type of neutron star called a pulsar, which is technically dead, and using a similar system to that of GPS.

To further investigate this new development, NASA has built the Goddard X-ray Navigation Laboratory Testbed (GXNLT). The agency plans to send an instrument quipped with X-ray navigation technology to the ISS to test the system in calculating the course of the station.

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