Could a quantum compass replace GPS? MoD system lets you navigate WITHOUT using space satellites
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Today our methods of pinpointing locations on Earth are reliant on space-based satellite navigation systems such as the Global Positioning System (GPS).
But scientists in the UK claim to have found a way to mimic the functions of GPS without sending anything into space.
Known as a 'quantum compass', this revolutionary method would use the subatomic effects on Earth's magnetic field and could one day be employed in smartphones.
Modern satellite navigation systems like Europe's Galileo (artist's illustration shown) rely on space-based technologies, but a breakthrough by the UK's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory could lead to Earth based 'quantum compass' navigation systems
GPS, although one of the great inventions of the modern age, has a number of limitations.
Most notably, it relies on satellites being launched into space.
HOW DOES THE 'QUANTUM COMPASS' WORK?
Ultra cold atoms are cooled with lasers to temperatures a billion times colder than outer space.
At their lowest energies the atoms become the coldest known bodies in the universe.
These slow moving, low energy atoms are extremely sensitive to changes in the Earth's magnetic and gravitational field.
If trapped on a small device, like a trip, their tiny fluctuations can then be tracked from great distances away and their locations pinpointed with a huge degree of accuracy.
Their lack of movement also makes them ideal for atomic clocks which utilise the ultra-regular absorption and release of radiation by their electrons during energy shifts as a highly accurate pendulum.
Current atomic clocks are reliable to one second every billion years, with this limit created by the occasional collision of atoms within the clock.
However laser cooling the atoms until they are near stationary significantly reduces this effect.
And the US has previously warned that the system is at capacity and could be vulnerable to attack.
But GPS is also limited with regards to submarines – when they dive underwater it no longer works.
This means that when a submarine eventually resurfaces, efforts to locate it can be out by more than half a mile (one kilometre).
A quantum compass would, apparently, reduce that inaccuracy down to just three feet (one metre).
That's according to the scientists behind the project at the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) in Porton Down, UK.
And the breakthrough is all the more impressive for being impregnable, unlike GPS, ensuring that no outside interference can disrupt it.
'There is nothing in physics that could be used - given the knowledge we have now - to disrupt one of these [new] devices," Bob Cockshott at the National Physics Laboratory, who are also involved in the research, said in the Financial Times.
But it's not just militaristic applications that make this technology so appealing.
The scientists say saw quantum compass devices could eventually be used in smartphones.
Currently GPS does not work underwater, so when submarines dive and eventually resurface their location can have an error of about 0.62 miles (one kilometre). A quantum compass could improve this accuracy by a factor of 1,000, according to the scientists
Could Google Maps one day be powered by a quantum compass chip and not GPS satellites? According to the scientists, a true quantum compass can be built by 2019
OTHER UPCOMING RESEARCH PROJECTS FROM THE MOD'S DSTL
• An ion microchip for more compact atomic clocks at the National Physical Laboratory.
• A portable atomic clock that could be used as a sensor to measure gravitational potential, from the University of Birmingham.
• A portable atom interferometer for greatly improved inertial navigation at Imperial College London.
• Hollow core fibre for a compact, low-power atomic clock at the National Physical Laboratory.
• Graphene atomic chips by the University of Nottingham for more energy efficient electromagnetic sensors and highly accurate gyroscopes.
• A cheaper, more efficient source of laser cooled atoms that can fit on a postage stamp from the University of Southampton.
'The defence industry often acts as a pioneer in the development of new technologies and the potential benefits of a future in which we can navigate by inner space rather than outer space will impact both the military and civilian world,' says Neil Stansfield, Head of Knowledge, Innovation, and Futures Enterprise at DSTL, in a release
'Quantum TNS [Time, Navigation and Sensing] technologies could bring game-changing advantages to the UK defence sector and support markets measured in billions of pounds, here in the UK and around the world.
'Whilst there are some significant obstacles, it's exciting to see how well-placed the UK is on the global stage to address the significant technical and systematic challenges that remain in commercialising quantum technologies and accelerating exploitation.
It's understood that companies including Nokia, Hitachi and Toshiba are all research such quantum technologies.
In 2013 the UK announced an investment of £270 million over five years researching the possibility of translating quantum science to new products and services.
Aside from navigation, quantum clocks could also be a lucrative market around the world.
The exploitation of quantum mechanics that underpins the laws of nature at the smallest length scales has already given the world a wealth of new technologies including semiconductors, microprocessors, lasers, nuclear energy, thermal imagers and digital cameras.
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