A quantum precision quantum positioning system that could be used as a backup in GPS British scientists are developing.
According to a New Scientist report, the system will test 2016 from a British submarine, which will sail under his guidance. As mentioned, this system will be able to record the position of the vessel accurately 1.000 times larger than anything else in the past.
If the test is successful, the system in question could be scaled up for use in planes, trains, cars, and even mobile phones or itname/ self-driving vehicles - generally in devices and systems where loss of GPS signal can be dangerous.
The GPS does not work below the surface of the water, so submarines navigate using animeometers to record the ship's movements after falling down and losing the last stigma - but this system is not too expensive.
"Today, if a submarine goes a day without a GPS track, then we will have a navigational error of the order of one kilometer when it surfaces," Neil Stansfield of the British Defense Ministry told New Scientist. Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL). "A quantum accelerometer would reduce that to one meter."
To create the ultra-sensitive quantum accelerometers, Stansfield's team was inspired by the discovery (for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1997) that laser beams can "trap" and cool a cloud of atoms in a vacuum to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero . After cooling, the atoms reach a quantum state that is easily perturbed by external forces – and then another laser beam can be used to track them. These measurements can be used to calculate its size externalof force exerted. The DSTL team is looking to use this in a submarine, where the magnitude of the external force will correspond to the movements of the vessel below the surface.
The prototype quantum accelerometer looks like a one-meter shoebox, and will be tested on land in September 2015. It will initially work on just one axis, before two more sets of lasers and trapped atoms are added to "cover" movement on all three. dimensions. “Once we understand the first generations, we'll start scaling it down for others applicationssays Stansfield.
However, there is still a road, as the gauge can not yet distinguish between the effect of gravity and the accelerations arising from the movement of a boat - which creates the need for extremely accurate gravitational maps.
According to New Scientist, DSTL is not the only body working on quantum navigation, as similar research is carried out by teams in USA, the China and Australia.
