The red line in this image represents the path the “navigatee” walked, while the white line with dots shows the path recorded by MuWNS. Credit: 2023 Hiroyuki K.M. TanakaIn a reported global first, researchers from the University of Tokyo have used superfast, subatomic particles known as muons to wirelessly navigate underground.
Muons exist for only 2.2 microseconds , but because they travel at the speed of light in a vacuum , they have enough time to reach Earth from the atmosphere and penetrate deep into the ground. Credit: 2015 Hiroyuki K.M. Tanakato help us look deep inside volcanoes, peek through pyramids, and see inside cyclones. Muons fall constantly and frequently around the world and can’t be tampered with.
MuPS was initially created to help detect seafloor changes caused by underwater volcanoes or tectonic movement. It uses four muon-detecting reference stations aboveground to provide coordinates for a muon-detecting receiver underground. Early iterations of this technology required the receiver to be connected to a ground station by a wire, greatly restricting movement. However, this latest research uses high-precision quartz clocks to synchronize the ground stations with the receiver.
To test the navigation ability of MuWNS, reference detectors were placed on the sixth floor of a building while a “navigatee” took a receiver detector to the basement floor. They slowly walked up and down the corridors of the basement while holding the receiver. Rather than navigating in real time, measurements were taken and used to calculate their route and confirm the path they had taken.