The Global Navigation Challenge
6 Apr 2022
The claim
The same sextant claim - but relaxed: any celestial navigation method is allowed, including the celestial sphere as published in nautical almanacs.
The challenge
Determine the observer's position from three star angles measured with a smartphone theodolite app in Minnesota: Arcturus 45.7°, Polaris 45.6°, Procyon 25.2° (90° is straight up).
The rules
Any celestial navigation method; submissions by email; official file carries a published SHA-256 checksum; Legit Challenge Framework v0.9b.
Prize & status
$100 in Bitcoin, in escrow. Solved in 4 minutes: 'Bacon' on MCToon's Discord found the position within 6 km. A solution video was posted by Timbo Turtle.
Why it matters
The relaxed version shows what the method looks like when you are allowed to use the tools that actually exist - and it was solved almost instantly. The strict flat-geometry version ($10,000) has had zero submissions: the method flat-earthers claim exists does not appear to exist.