http://www.colonyworlds.com/2008/04/saturns-titan-a-gps-nightmare.html Discussing reasonable ways to colonize our solar system Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:16:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.colonyworlds.com/2008/04/saturns-titan-a-gps-nightmare.html#comment-3052 Alexander Scott Fri, 20 May 2011 16:46:00 +0000 http://www.colonyworlds.com/2008/04/saturns-titan-a-gps-nightmare.html#comment-3052 Just to put the figure quoted (0.36 degrees) into perspective: Titan's diameter is 5150 Km (according to the 2010 BAA handbook). Its circumference is therefore 16179 Km, meaning that this shift of 0.36 degrees corresponds to 16.8 Km on the ground. While this is probably decent enough accuracy for landing objects from orbit of flyby, it probably means that navigation on the planet itself is best done by dead-reckoning from a known point. Just to put the figure quoted (0.36 degrees) into perspective: Titan’s diameter is 5150 Km (according to the 2010 BAA handbook). Its circumference is therefore 16179 Km, meaning that this shift of 0.36 degrees corresponds to 16.8 Km on the ground. While this is probably decent enough accuracy for landing objects from orbit of flyby, it probably means that navigation on the planet itself is best done by dead-reckoning from a known point.

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