Hobby and business wise: is it difficult to build this thing? Someone could explain what a startup need to do something similar?
> Is it difficult to build this thing? Yes. > What would a startup need to make this work as a business? Extensive contacts in the submarine navigation ecosystem and several decades of deep knowledge of highly complex, highly classified, related navigation systems that this product would need to interoperate with. This tech is not a magic locator machine on its own, it's a component that improves one small but import…
Royal Navy says quantum navigation test a success
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Re: Royal Navy says quantum navigation test a success
#182Re: Royal Navy says quantum navigation test a success
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fascinating. Q for you since you are so clued in. I am a ham radio operator and was thinking about novel forms of signal propagation. I landed on the idea of gravitons. Could gravitonic signal propagation be done somehow? While researching, I keep coming across familiar terms I know from radio land. Just curious if the fields here could be harnessed for communication. Thanks.
The detectors are such precision instruments it took over 10 years of calibration until they even had the first detection. Maybe some far off comms network could use them, but I doubt anytime soon. I wonder if you could use erasure codes with them too :)
Re: Royal Navy says quantum navigation test a success
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's use a magnetometer as an example. Inertial navigation system (INS) is just using the magnetometer as a compass, so errors in bearing accumulate over time. Instead, if you built a map of magnetic field strength, the slight spatial variation of field strength would let you precisely localize on the map. In robotics parlance, this is the difference between dead reckoning versus SLAM (simultaneous localization and…
Then it looks like underwater landslides, volcanoes and earthquakes could throw things off from time to time.
Re: Royal Navy says quantum navigation test a success
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's use a magnetometer as an example. Inertial navigation system (INS) is just using the magnetometer as a compass, so errors in bearing accumulate over time. Instead, if you built a map of magnetic field strength, the slight spatial variation of field strength would let you precisely localize on the map. In robotics parlance, this is the difference between dead reckoning versus SLAM (simultaneous localization and…
The earths magnetic field is not constant. I don't know how much it changes, but I know magnetic north drifts a bit every year. And every once in a while the field reverses (IIRC we are like 10k years overdue for a reversal if we read the history of them right - a lot of guesses go into that of cousre)
Re: Royal Navy says quantum navigation test a success
#186I'm surprised we don't see more military research for SAT-NAV alternatives. In any big conflict SAT-NAV is trivial to turn off. If you can still position yourself and your enemy can't, that is an enormous advantage in targeting, logistics, coordination, and situational awareness. Seems like a no-brainer.
The US military is working on a device that can use stars to determine location even during the day.
They already developed a device that could do that in the 60s, but it was quite large:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird#Astro...
https://timeandnavigation.si.edu/multimedia-asset/nortronics...
Do you have a source for the one you say they're working on? Is more portable or hand-held?
Re: Royal Navy says quantum navigation test a success
#187The Imperial College researcher who builds these things describes his research here: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/centre-for-cold-matter/research/q... The page claims that this device attempts to measure acceleration accurately enough that position can be determined (by integrating over time, twice).
Re: Royal Navy says quantum navigation test a success
#188This is the most obvious practical application of my PhD topic. A Bose Einstein Condensate is an extremely sensitive detector of gravity- a nuclear submarine could use it to make an ultra-accurate map of the world based on variations in the gravitational constant g. This would remove one of the primary reasons subs need to surface , in order to GPS lock. It’s a naval chart that would not require surfacing. A French p…
> This would remove one of the primary reasons subs need to surface , in order to GPS lock. Huh? Wouldn't it be enough to send some small thing connected by thin wires or wirelessly to the submarine (lasers, ultrasound, whatever) that could aquire location and communicate it? Given military budgets it could probably even be disposable. Leaving beacons in areas of interest also seems like a good idea. With good encryp…
Re: Royal Navy says quantum navigation test a success
#189This is the most obvious practical application of my PhD topic. A Bose Einstein Condensate is an extremely sensitive detector of gravity- a nuclear submarine could use it to make an ultra-accurate map of the world based on variations in the gravitational constant g. This would remove one of the primary reasons subs need to surface , in order to GPS lock. It’s a naval chart that would not require surfacing. A French p…
Re: Royal Navy says quantum navigation test a success
#190This is the most obvious practical application of my PhD topic. A Bose Einstein Condensate is an extremely sensitive detector of gravity- a nuclear submarine could use it to make an ultra-accurate map of the world based on variations in the gravitational constant g. This would remove one of the primary reasons subs need to surface , in order to GPS lock. It’s a naval chart that would not require surfacing. A French p…
Doesn't magnetic pole shift due to fluid dynamics in Earth core? Wouldn't that also affect gravity field?