Elon Musk's SpaceX has more than 700 Starlink satellites orbiting Earth. The company plans to launch around 30,000 more in the coming years. Satellites aim to provide high speed internet access around the world.
A non-peer reviewed paper by Todd Humphreys and Peter Iannucci, University of Texas, says a system using the same satellites with traditional GPS is already on the table. Recently, a study funded by the US military concluded that the Starlink network could serve as a low-cost alternative to GPS navigation.
MIT Technology Review reported that Humphreys calls it a LEO (Low Earth Orbit) merged navigation. It can indicate the precise location of a user up to 70 centimeters.
Research also indicates that this mode of navigation is ten times more accurate than traditional GPS service and could be almost unscathed. This makes it the perfect technology for precise navigation in the defense sector.
To make this a reality, the duo plan to upgrade the software on the Startlink satellite so that it can work with the existing GPS system.
What is Starlink?
As already mentioned, the Starlink satellites are launched by SpaceX from Elon Musk. It is a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite, which can provide internet speeds of up to 100 Mbps worldwide. Starlink operates in a smaller area, so it needs a huge constellation of satellites to make an unbreakable network.
SpaceX is creating this constellation to get high speed internet using satellites. The US military sees this network as an opportunity to achieve precise navigation, less prone to jammers and interference.
Comparison of Starlink and GPS
The current Global Positioning Service (GPS) operates on a constellation of thirty satellites around the world. Rotating 20,000 kilometers from Earth, these satellites broadcast their exact position and time using an accurate atomic clock mounted on each.
However, the GPS signals weaken as they reach here, causing accidental interference and becoming more prone to jammers. This is where the Starlink network comes in. Its antennas for microwave frequencies are almost 10 times directional than GPS antennas.
A major weakness in using Fused LEO navigation is that the initial Starlink constellation should not operate above 60 degrees latitude. This means that the constellation cannot yet provide navigation to users in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Another problem is that SpaceX's system is likely to come at a steep price when compared to standard GPS navigation.
In the years to come, we are going to see thousands of Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX. The number and communication power of these satellites is what makes this constellation almost unbeatable. It can provide an exact location up to a few centimeters away from the user, which is far superior to that of the existing GPS system.
The post that the US military can use SpaceX Starlink satellites for non-jamming navigation first appeared on Fossbytes.
