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World's first GPS-free quantum navigation trial succeeds at sea (interestingengineering.com)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 67 points 2 months ago (15 children)

Navigation with a suitcase sized device that doesn't rely on hundreds of thousands of satellites? Honestly this sounds great.

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  • [–] 21 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    Wait until you hear about compasses and maps!

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  • [–] 32 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    In the middle of the ocean? Wouldn't that require a sextant, night time, and a lot of expertise?

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  • [–] 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Not even thousands

    Not even hundreds

    Try 31

    You're literally off by a factor of 3225

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  • [–] 10 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Hundred of thousands of satellites? Are you on mushrooms or something?

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  • [–] 16 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    So, for anyone else who became curious after this exchange:

    I tried to look up how many there actually are. It's hard to give a single number, since there are many different ways to count them, but vaguely speaking it's in the range of dozens to a few hundred. GPS specifically has had 83 satellites built, of which 31 are currently operational, but most of the others still exist, they're just parked in a higher orbit for retirement. There's also GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, and IRNSS/Navic. QZSS and IRNSS don't have as many satellites, and the rest are kinda roughly similar in number (e.g. GLONASS has had 146 built and 24 currently operational).

    So yeah. Nowhere near hundreds of thousands. Even Starlink, which now comprises more than half of the total satellites of any kind in orbit, has only about 10,000.

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