Image: Stars Inside Globular Star Cluster Omega Centauri, Nasa
RESEARCH

Navigating by Nature

Ancient techniques of star mapping

The U.S. Navy are returning to teaching military personnel the art of celestial navigation after realising they are over reliant on GPS.
"I would equate it to blindly following the navigation system in your car: If you don't have an understanding of north/south/east/west, or perhaps where you're going, it takes you to places you didn't intend to go"
Rear Admiral Michael White
In unknown territory, military operations rely extensively on the information shared by GPS, but this intel is open to attack from hackers or destruction of hardware. Navigating using nature, whether by the pattern in the stars above or the landmarks of trees, rocks and boulders, brings people back into their present reality and connects to them to the environment that they are traversing.

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