Researchers figure out how to make the Starlink constellation a GPS-type constellation
Researchers working independent from SpaceX and without any of the company’s proprietary data, have found a way to turn the Starlink internet constellation — now about 3,000 satellites strong — into a method of pinpointing one’s location, thus making it an alternative to GPS-type satellites.
To be clear, no one is accessing Starlink user data here. The sync sequences are just strings of timings and other data that the machines use to stay in touch — the payload data is entirely separate.
In the paper, due to the fact that the signal was being targeted at an actual Starlink user terminal, the location had to be for that terminal too, and they were able to get it within 30 meters. Not better than GPS, obviously, but it could be quicker and eventually more accurate if SpaceX were to give the project its blessing.
A software update that slightly adjusts how the satellites send their signals and a bit of data on correcting for variance between their clocks, and Humphreys suggests Starlink transmissions could be used to locate oneself to within a meter.
You can read the paper here [pdf].
It seems a no-brainer that at some point SpaceX management will recognize the money they can make from this extra capability, and will figure out the best way to produce and sell handheld units. It also appears that there will be profit in allowing others to also tag on.
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Researchers working independent from SpaceX and without any of the company’s proprietary data, have found a way to turn the Starlink internet constellation — now about 3,000 satellites strong — into a method of pinpointing one’s location, thus making it an alternative to GPS-type satellites.
To be clear, no one is accessing Starlink user data here. The sync sequences are just strings of timings and other data that the machines use to stay in touch — the payload data is entirely separate.
In the paper, due to the fact that the signal was being targeted at an actual Starlink user terminal, the location had to be for that terminal too, and they were able to get it within 30 meters. Not better than GPS, obviously, but it could be quicker and eventually more accurate if SpaceX were to give the project its blessing.
A software update that slightly adjusts how the satellites send their signals and a bit of data on correcting for variance between their clocks, and Humphreys suggests Starlink transmissions could be used to locate oneself to within a meter.
You can read the paper here [pdf].
It seems a no-brainer that at some point SpaceX management will recognize the money they can make from this extra capability, and will figure out the best way to produce and sell handheld units. It also appears that there will be profit in allowing others to also tag on.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Interesting, but I don’t see how SpaceX can market and make money off this. They would have to do location better and cheaper than GPS, Glonass, and Galileo.
One possibility might be a military application – could this potentially be used in a GPS denied environment?
“…could this potentially be used in a GPS denied environment?”
I think it certainly could, and one of the strengths of such a solution might well be that, not being a bespoke GPS, it presumably would require other than standard anti-GPS techniques to defeat it.
It might also be “dumber” than purpose-built GPS systems, and/or with less intelligence vulnerable in space, and more on the ground.
Starlink is trying to make a partnership with a phone company.
If it turns out it is possible to send and receive at least text messages directly through the satellites then this could also be used as an emergency geo locator for hikers and backpackers lost in the woods.
Years ago when bluetooth was new I heard about an app that would sent text messages by bluetooth. This was an attempt to keep communications going even if the grid and the towers went down. The limit the functionality of the app was the amount of memory in each phone. Now though the amount of memory is huge and even in someplace like New York each phone would not get filled up.
The hurdle is the receivers, getting such chips into smart phones. As 5G network infrastructure is being built, so is UWB, Ultra Wide Band. UWB radio chips are also already in all new iPhones and at least some Samsung. models. UWB means transmitting across a very wide band of radio frequencies at once. This allows for signals to pass through obstacles like concrete walls and human bodies. Thus allowing for determining location by triangulation, measuring the time of travel for the radio signals from multiple fixed installed (in 5G cell stations for example) and so the distance to each of them. The precision can be much better than with GPS, better than centimeter, depending on how dense the stationary radio beacon network is.
Verizon seems to be leading the way by installing UWB where they install 5G in most US cities. And most new phones can use it. The applications are however still very poorly developed. There’s a big potential for new business here. Lots and lots of application for business to keep track of things that move indoors. There are of course cheap UWB microchips available, no need for an expensive smartphone other than for consumer convenience. There are also cheap USB dongles with UWB transmitters that can easily be installed on computers for the one who would like to try it on at home. Keeping track of the cat or something, the applications do need some imagination, but there certainly are plenty.