NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Cel nav in space
From: Bill B
Date: 2005 Jan 4, 14:37 -0500
From: Bill B
Date: 2005 Jan 4, 14:37 -0500
> Forty five minutes after the umbilical cord was disconnected, the IUS > would "wake up". It would then start searching the sky looking for a > star of a specified color and intensity. When it found a star with the > right color and intensity, it would place that star in the center of the > visible star field and then rotate around until it found a second star > of specified color and intensity. With two, it would then look for a > third. This would enable the onboard systems to determine its orbital > position and orientation. Fascinating. I was once told that Soviet ICBMs used a form of cel nav for targeting, as they could not trust a potential enemy's GPS system ;-) I quipped, "Big deal. So SA is on and you miss by 100 meters. What does that matter with multiple warheads? I was surprised to learn that the destination was locked in while the missile was high above the Earth, so a few seconds of an arc off could make a potentially significant difference on final destination. Bill