101 - Underwater and underground navigation using Muons

When cosmic rays reach the upper part of the Earth’s atmosphere, several particles are created, including muons. Muons, elementary particles with the same charge of the electron but with bigger mass, can travel through any kind of material, including water and rock. A muon detector can be very small and very low cost (~ $100). Muons can be used for navigation using Reference Detectors (to determine the Time-of-Flight). In [Tanaka, 2022, Nature], deep-underground tests were reported, achieving meter-level accuracy. In [Tanaka, 2020, Nature], a Muon Positioning System is proposed to measure deformations of the seafloor. This system requires one User Detector (installed on the seafloor), four Reference Detectors (installed on four buoys), one GPS-RTK system per buoy and a communication cable between User Detector and one of the Reference Detectors. Although Tanaka is proposing the use of bigger detectors, all these components are assumed to be low-cost. Performance and flexibility could be improved for example by changing the cable for a wireless communication system, installing an atomic clock on one or multiple detectors.

Although this concept is of major of interest (as it allows navigation in problematic environments), this concept does have certain challenges (e.g., for an increasing distance between Reference Detector and User detector, the update rate of positions decreases). For reference, EL1- 014 “PNT using Neutrino Particles” attempted to use other particles to navigate. Its results are somewhat relevant and will be made available as part of the solicitation package.

The objective of this activity is to consolidate and demonstrate underwater and underground navigation using Muons, with a target performance better than the performance of Muon Positioning Systems reported in literature.

The tasks to be performed shall include:

• Identification of commercial needs and opportunities (e.g. offshore engineering, mining, …)
• Identification of the challenges for navigation using muons
• Considering the challenges, consolidation of algorithms and hardware (muon detectors, time-synchronisation, communication)
• Design, construction, and verification in the laboratory of a demonstrator
• Underwater and underground demonstrations.

The main outputs of the activity will consist of:

• Technical Notes
• Hardware and Software prototype.