Global positioning system (GPS) devices are so commonplace today that it’s hard to imagine life without one in your vehicle or built into your smartphone. Comprised satellites orbiting the planet providing their locations based on relative distance to Earth, GPS makes it easy for those on the planet’s surface to find their way around. However, if you’re planning a trip to a distant planet, you’ll find that your Garmin will be of no help (and not, not because you will be missing the map data). So what’s an aspiring astronaut to do for directions while in deep space? The answer may come in the form of pulsars, highly magnetized and rotating neutron stars that emit beams of radiation at set intervals.
Think of each known pulsar (there were 1500 of them as of 2006) in the universe as a distant lighthouse. The light in this case would be the radiation that is emitting from the pulsar. Because neutron stars rotate at a set intervals, scientists are able to “set their watches,” so to speak on them.
The key to GPS navigation is having fixed points in space that can allow triangulation algorithms to take place in our devices that give our exact location on the Earth. In space, because everything is moving relative to each other, it has been impossible to create such a system. With pulsars, researchers now have fixed X-ray beacons in space to work from for navigation.
German scientists at the Max-Planck Institute are hard at work creating techniques to make this possibility a reality in the future. The problem that exists with this kind of technology right now is the size of current X-ray detectors which are too big and bulky to be considered for this application. However, the scientists say that within 15 to 20 years the miniaturization of these detectors could make it feasible. This should give you plenty of time to build your own space vehicle to travel to Mars.
I can just imagine what it will be like to have an interstellar TomTom device that will give me turn-by-turn directions to the Red Planet. “Keep straight for six months, then turn left.”