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Rangermatthias t1_j8vjlga wrote

Reply to comment by DressCritical in eli5: Why Can’t We Use Echo-Location to Map the Catacombs by Suspicious-Rich-2681

There's a scene in Prometheus where they map a cave system that turns out is part of a space ship (as I recall).

It made me think why couldn't we do something like that with modern technology - like drones, IR cameras, echo-location style sensors, etc?

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na3than t1_j8vlphq wrote

We can ... sort of. Using conventional sensors to build a 3-D map of the space you're in isn't all that hard. The challenge is linking the map of the space you're in to the next map you'll make after you move an imprecise distance in an imprecise direction. GPS doesn't work underground, a magnetic compass can be misled by local geology, and dead reckoning accumulates errors pretty quickly.

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DressCritical t1_j8vjwil wrote

We are working on developing such things, but so far they are still science fiction.

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