There's a sad poetry that the simplest ICBM guidance is a camera that simply watches the stars.
Seems fitting since the first orbital rockets were just ICBMs with their warheads removed.
The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
41–50 of 358 posts
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#42Interesting that it’s not confirmed if the SR-71 flew in the Southern Hemisphere. Would be a very bold design if it didn’t and the system wasn’t designed for it.
The F22 had an unintentional problem of being unable to cross the international date line, which was discovered when attempting to fly from Hawaii to Japan. Given that it may very well be better to assume that anything untested doesn't work at all and to live within those restrictions.
The space shuttle was untested in flying over the new year between December and January. It needed a clock reset and they weren't about to test that on orbit.
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#43How does it see the stars? Even modern CMOS image sensors cannot see the stars during the day.
Probably by flying above most of the atmosphere.
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#44Insert story about shaming a Hornet driver over ATC, and showing the bugsmashers who the king of speed was.
Insert all of the practical reasons why that story is made-up or at least extremely embellished.
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#45How complicated/expensive would it be to build an open source star tracker nowadays? How accurate of a fix could you get just by pointing a phone at a sky? Or a DSLR on a commercial gimbal?
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#46ICBMs have used celestial guidance since the 50s. https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/snark-guidance...
Also B-58
A college friend of mine who was at the Air Force Academy in the 1980s told me she was trained in celestial navigation in case they needed it in a pinch. Both of us were pretty interested in the math.
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#47How complicated/expensive would it be to build an open source star tracker nowadays? How accurate of a fix could you get just by pointing a phone at a sky? Or a DSLR on a commercial gimbal?
Your wish is my command. http://openstartracker.org
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#48Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#49Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#50Anyone know if modern military aircraft have something similar? I imagine it would be even cheaper and easier to do these days given the processors and cameras we now have. Seems like a good backup to have.
Former military aerospace engineer here. In my opinion it would only be worth it on long range strategic bombers such as the B-52. Fighters don't have the legs to fly far enough that celestial navigation becomes worth the added complexity. For other air mobility platforms like the C-130 or C-17 in my experience they do not include these features, as GPS, INS, and regular old "ask ATC for a vector" are usually good en…
Is one of them dead reckoning using polarized light the way bees do?