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Old 11th Sep 2010, 03:29
  #41 (permalink)  
Jetex_Jim
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Bavaria
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Celestial navigation, even robots do it,
Celestial guidance was first used (automatically) in the American Snark missile (Nortronics stellar-inertial guidance) first flown on 06/08/1953. It uses star positioning to fine-tune the accuracy of the inertial guidance system after launch.
Regarding Snark.
By 1958 the celestial navigation system used by the Snark allowed its most accurate test, which appeared to fall 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) short of the target. However, this apparent failure was at least partially because the British Navigation Charts used to determine the position of Ascension Island were based on position-determination techniques less accurate than those used by the Snark. The missile landed where Ascension Island would be found if more accurate navigation methods had been used when developing the chart
Greatly disapointed to read that the charts had Ascension wrong, next thing we'll be hearing that the RAF got Australia in the wrong spot...
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