Scientists working from the Max-Planck Institute of Physics in Germany believe they may have found a GPS for space.
They have discovered that old dead stars, called Pulsars, emit a steady radio signal at an extremely accurate time interval. The researchers have calculated that, by using a number of these Pulsar "satellites", space-faring vehicles can make use of a very similar process to that of the GPS systems to find their location.
Today, humans use satellite GPS systems to navigate the world around them, even in space.Each satellite has an ID and a fixed location and continually sends out a signal. A GPS receiver, such as your smartphone, will lock onto around four of these satellites and use the signals to calculate a position in 3 dimensions that represents your location.
Clearly, you need to be able to receive these signals to calculate a position, and this means you need to be below the ring of GPS satellites orbiting the earth.Once you leave the surface of the earth and head off into space, the GPS system can no longer be used for navigation.
For the average man in the street, this is not really a problem, but for space engineers with no GPS, making sure a probe or shuttle goes where intended can be quite tricky.
The advantage to using the pulsars natural signal is that they are scattered around the entire universe, so there will really be no excuse for getting lost anymore, regardless of where you go.
