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Frank Reed wrote a very interesting account of space navigation with a
sextant.  I appreciate him sharing it with us.

This topic came up about a year ago, and somebody cited a booklet that
was prepared by P.V.H. Weems and some smart fresh NTROTC grads in a
session at the Naval Academy.  I believe these folks recommended sights
of altitudes above earth to get lat and long, as Frank described, with
radar ranging for distance above the earth, rather than sights on
another object.  The book is entitled "Space Navigation Handbook."
NAVPERS 92988.  Used copies are available through the usual outlets,
such as amazon.com or abebooks.com.

Also, the Mars probes are using sights to stars.  I believe their
procedures were described in a post I made about 2 months ago.

I wish I were competent enough to sign onto one of these flights as a
navigator like Frank, but I guess I'd have to settle for janitor or
perhaps staff botanist.

Fred

   

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