Why deep space doesn’t have GPS? (and how i will solve it)

Started working on ADSNS today.

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Here is the problem nobody thinks about until they hit it - GPS only works because Earth is wrapped in satellites broadcasting atomic clock precise time signals. The second a spacecraft leaves that bubble, that whole system is gone. NASA’s missions fall back on the Deep Space Network, giant ground antennas that triangulate your position from Earth. It works, but it’s slow, light-time delay alone can be hours round trip by the time you’re past Mars - and it needs Earth to be free, pointed at you, and listening (also DSN antenna time is very expensive).

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The good part is the universe already broadcasts its own precision clocks. Millisecond pulsars rotate with stability that rivals atomic clocks. If you can measure when their pulses arrive at your spacecraft and compare that against a predicted model, you can solve for your own position, the same basic math GPS uses, just with pulsars standing in for satellites.

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That’s the whole bet behind ADSNS: an Earth-independent GNSS, built from natural beacons. Spent today scaffolding the repo, brainstorming how it will even work, and writing out the data packet that will be used for transmission later which required.. a lot of time (in fact its 400+ lines of code and several hours of structure xD).

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I think i will start working on signal processing tomorrow, since to calculate the position, the very first thing we need to do, is to locate where the signal came from, and convert it into a somewhat favorable energy plot for further comparison with our onboard SOM (Space Object Map).

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It’s available on GitHub