The StarLink global Internet system can be used as a replacement for Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), the University of Ohio reports, referring to a study aimed at publishing an IEEE TransactionS on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.
Specialists have created algorithms that, using open data on the location and movement of STARLINK spacecraft, allowed to determine the coordinates of the ground object equipped with the host antenna, up to 7.7 meters. It is noted that “GPS usually determines the location of the device in the range from 0.3 to five meters.”
“and although Starlink was not designed for navigating purposes, we have shown that it is possible to study the parts of the system enough to use it,” the director of the Center for Automatic Vehicles with Multimodal Navigation, Zak Cassas, said.
Specialist is confident that the increase in the number of STARLINK spacecraft will increase the accuracy achieved. In his opinion, the use of such satellites can become an alternative to traditional navigation systems, which may be more secure, in particular, for military applications.
Cassas notes that Starlink spacecraft are located much closer to the surface of the Earth than GPS satellites, because the signal from the first is stronger than from the second, and, as a result, less suspended. Specialist notes that the use of StarLink to navigate does not allow “listening” what “transmitted through satellites.”
In September, Teslarati edition made it that the Starlink system will become a few million users.
In September 2020, “Vedomosti” wrote that the atmosphere worsens a signal from the spacecraft at least twice, so the real accuracy of the GLONASS “Open-air in a clean field” is about 2.5 meters, and in the “urban conditions” – 5-10 meters.