Comment by Dylan16807 | Hacker News Reader

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Comment by Dylan16807 | Hacker News Reader

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You'd calibrate the timing of the pulsars before launch.

Which means that you would have to keep track of each pulse, if you have a comparatively inaccurate clock. Does not seem practical.

EDIT: On second thought, using an accurate clock would be a tiny fraction of the cost of the whole system, so it's a solved problem.

There’s a washing machine sized pulsar detector bolted to the International Space Station that is successfully locating itself with pulsars.

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/session...

TIL using multiple pulsars to create a galactic positioning system "is a solved problem."

Though it's useful, you don't even need an accurate clock. You can observe the relative phases of several pulsars to recover your clock.

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