atomic clock / radio-receiver chip

[polz]

On Sunday 01 June 2008 21:33:15 Ilja O. wrote:

> But why there are no clocks at the orbit? They could be useful enough.
> E.g. if there are several of them each on predefined geostationary
> orbit we could do lots of useful things with them! For example, we
> could prove that general relativity indeed exists (although ionosphere
> would likely to spoil party at some degree).
>

Or you could add a radio transmitter to each of the clocks in lower, almost 
circular orbits, and then use the differences between the times recieved from 
multiple orbiting atomic clocks to pinpoint your locations. You'd need a lot 
of them, though, probably something like 24 clocks in 3 orbital planes. OK, 
maybe you could get by with 21, if you beleived you don't need any spares.

But naah, that would never work ;>.