Team brings space travel closer
Print Edition
Chinese scientists have conducted experiments on pulsar navigation with an X-ray space telescope, and the technology could be used in future deep space exploration and interplanetary or interstellar travel.
The experiments were conducted on the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope, dubbed Insight, which was sent into space on June 15, 2017, to observe black holes, pulsars and gamma-ray bursts, by scientists from the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The positioning accuracy in the experiments reached 10 kilometers, further verifying the feasibility of autonomous navigation of spacecraft by using pulsars, which lays a foundation for future practical application in deep space exploration, said scientists.
An article about the experiments was published in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement on Wednesday.
Insight carries several detectors including a high-energy X-ray telescope, a medium-energy X-ray telescope and a low-energy X-ray telescope.
Through more than two years of operation, Insight has observed many black holes, pulsars and gamma-ray bursts. In addition, the in-orbit demonstration of the X-ray pulsar navigation technique has been carried out, said Zheng Shijie, the principal investigator of the pulsar navigation demonstration.
More and more space probes are exploring the solar system and Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are going deeper into space. Being far away from Earth, they cannot use the global navigation satellite systems. These spacecraft mainly depend instead on radio technologies which have many limitations.
A new way to navigate
Pulsar navigation, an autonomous navigation technology, is receiving more and more attention as it is less dependent on the support of ground equipment and meets the continuous navigation requirements for deep space exploration, Zheng said.
“X-ray pulsar navigation is a new type of autonomous navigation method,” said Zheng, adding that “it uses the periodic pulse signals from pulsars, the distant celestial objects in the universe, providing navigation and timing services for spacecraft in space.”
Pulsars, a kind of rapidly rotating neutron star, are produced in supernova explosions. They are found to be highly magnetized, emitting two beams of electromagnetic radiation. This radiation can be observed only when the beam of emission is pointing toward Earth. It is much the same as how a lighthouse can be seen only when the light is pointed at an observer.
To date, scientists have discovered more than 2,000 pulsars. The Milky Way is thought to have around 100 million of them.
They are also called “cosmic-lighthouses” because of their long-term timing stability comparable to atomic clocks on Earth.
By detecting the periodic pulse signals of pulsars, a spacecraft can autonomously determine its orbit parameters, said scientists.
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