Interplanetary GPS System Developed: The "Coll Pulsar" Method

Now this may be one of those ideas that lasts for the next 10,000 years or so if it works out.

Today, Bertolomé Coll at the Observatoire de Paris in France and a friend propose an interstellar GPS system that has the ability to determine the position of any point in the galaxy to within a metre.

Their idea is to tune in to the signals from four pulsars: 0751+1807 (3.5ms), 2322+2057 (4.8ms), 0711-6830 (5.5ms) and 1518+0205B (7.9ms), which each generate regular millisecond radio signals.

So these pulsars would act as the GPS satellites do today and allow really easy navigation anywhere in our own galaxy. I can see this system used more and more as we start to leave this planet for other places in our stellar neighborhood. So these so-called "Coll Pulsars" might be programmed into every navigational computer in every interstellar ship going forward.

I just got the mental image from the year 3109 of a helmsman piloting a Boeing 7007 Spaceliner plotting the Coll Pulsars into the Garmin NaviComp and then setting a course for Alpha Centauri with a group of settlers on board. The settlers will spend the next 15 years in cryostasis while the NaviComp makes subtle course corrections pinging off of the Coll Pulsars.