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World's first GPS-free quantum navigation trial succeeds at sea (interestingengineering.com)
submitted 5 days ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 28 points 5 days ago (1 child)

If I were in the middle of the ocean I couldn't find my location within 100 nautical miles without GPS so I'm pretty impressed

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  • [–] 2 points 5 days ago (2 children)

    Then you wouldn't be the ideal thing to compare this to. An experienced navigator with a couple basic tools could do similarly.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 days ago

    Experience navigators with some basic tools often ended up hundreds and hundreds of miles off course because they had no reference points. If you're navigation system is landmarks plus a sextant then it's not going to be very accurate.

    When you're trying to transit the ocean one nautical miles worth of accuracy isn't bad, especially if the alternative is to use a potentially compromised GPS or a 15th century navigation tool.

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