Semi-related tangent: During the early 1990's I developed a star chart and ephemeris for the (momentarily) fashionable Windows Mobile platform called "Pocket Stars" that calculated one's geographical position from three or more sextant observations, mainly as backup for offshore sailors should their GPS system fail. For reasons I still can't fathom, a contractor for the Israeli military purchased many copies, apparen…
For reasons I still can't fathom, a contractor for the Israeli military purchased many copies, apparently so their tanks and troops could remain oriented after all other electronic systems failed. Possibly in case of EMP attack?
The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
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Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#232The Hokulea's maiden voyage was in 1975 and since then it has made global voyages to demonstrate and preserve ancient Polynesian wayfinding methods.
Here's a video where a local news channel covered an earlier voyage of the Hokulea (2014) and summarized how the ancient sailors would have used the stars as reference points: https://youtu.be/dla3RoQo37M
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
For reasons I still can't fathom, a contractor for the Israeli military purchased many copies, apparently so their tanks and troops could remain oriented after all other electronic systems failed. Possibly in case of EMP attack?
For an app? Running on an electronic device?
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder, however, whether it could track stars from the ground during the day. Might well only have worked at night.
The first paragraph of page 40 says: "Stars are normally tracked before takeoff, both at night and during the day (...)".
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#235Semi-related tangent: During the early 1990's I developed a star chart and ephemeris for the (momentarily) fashionable Windows Mobile platform called "Pocket Stars" that calculated one's geographical position from three or more sextant observations, mainly as backup for offshore sailors should their GPS system fail. For reasons I still can't fathom, a contractor for the Israeli military purchased many copies, apparen…
https://slate.com/technology/2015/10/u-s-naval-academy-reins...
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#236I'm going to replay this from memory without googling it, just to keep the late 20th century air of some people swapping unverifiable facts in a pub: There was an old friend of my mother's, now deceased, who was a retired engineer. He claimed to be the guy who invented the 2-part tuna can, and was known for handing out end chunks of titanium castings left over from some business he ran. At any rate, he had a couple o…
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#237Semi-related tangent: During the early 1990's I developed a star chart and ephemeris for the (momentarily) fashionable Windows Mobile platform called "Pocket Stars" that calculated one's geographical position from three or more sextant observations, mainly as backup for offshore sailors should their GPS system fail. For reasons I still can't fathom, a contractor for the Israeli military purchased many copies, apparen…
For reasons I still can't fathom, a contractor for the Israeli military purchased many copies, apparently so their tanks and troops could remain oriented after all other electronic systems failed. Possibly in case of EMP attack?
All that said, GPS denial is a very real thing, and has been repeatedly demonstrated in an operational context. It’s relatively trivial to do. You just need a regular ground based antenna, and not a particular strong transmitter because satellite signals are weak. Just broadcast a different timing signal and voilà! You now tricked someone into thinking they’re 50 miles away from where they really are.
https://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-overrated-threat-from-e...
https://www.c4isrnet.com/opinion/2022/07/22/why-isnt-russia-...
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#238Off tangent here but I thought I'd mention that yesterday a replica of a traditional Polynesian ocean-going canoe, the Hokulea, sailed into San Francisco, navigated with non-instrument methods including star observations. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/hokulea-polynesi... The Hokulea's maiden voyage was in 1975 and since then it has made global voyages to demonstrate and preserve ancient Polynesian wayfi…
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#239I'm going to replay this from memory without googling it, just to keep the late 20th century air of some people swapping unverifiable facts in a pub: There was an old friend of my mother's, now deceased, who was a retired engineer. He claimed to be the guy who invented the 2-part tuna can, and was known for handing out end chunks of titanium castings left over from some business he ran. At any rate, he had a couple o…
I was told that once above most of the atmosphere, the MIRV bus guidance unit pops the lens off and takes a snapshot of the stars. The MIRV bus is rotating at that point, so the telescope scans a good section of the sky, but it takes a snapshot at a very specific time and is only interested in a rather small patch of sky. It compares what it sees with a stored copy of what it should see, and uses that to re-calibrate the inertial measurement unit.
The way it was described to me was that one rotation checked the star field, the IMU was re-calibrated, the very next rotation was used to double-check the IMU calibration, and right after that, the MIRV bus started popping off the individual warheads. It seems strange to me that they would use such a short observation window to re-calibrate the IMU, rather than having a long period of continuous re-calibration. It's also highly possible that the guy explaining it to me was giving intentional misinformation to avoid accidentally disclosing TS/SCI to a non-cleared intern.
The nitty-gritty of guidance is fascinating. It's unfortunate that the main use cases for ultra-accurate guidance are in weapons.
There was a pendulous integrating gyroscopic accelerometer from the Apollo IMU sitting in a glass case in the lab... a shame given how few people were allowed into the lab.