NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
False stars and comet flybys
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2015 Apr 5, 22:58 -0700
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2015 Apr 5, 22:58 -0700
Celestial navigation of a sort remains a key technology even in deep space. It's the "astro-compass" that still reigns supreme --the distant stars are the gold standard for orientation. Here's an article describing the navigation difficulties last week when the star-tracking navigation system on the ESA Rosetta probe became confused by comet dust... "false stars" rendering the whole system nearly useless.
Frank Reed
Conanicut Island USA
