PulsarMesh: Unified XNAV, DTN, and Optical Communications for Off-World Navigation and Networking

Abstract

A galactic civilization needs more than rockets. It needs a shared layer for position, time, trust, and memory. PulsarMesh is a proposed off-world navigation-and-network stack that unifies X-ray pulsar navigation (XNAV), delay/disruption-tolerant networking (DTN), optical communications, RF survival links, local beacons, quantum gravimetry, signed ephemerides, and civilizational timekeeping. The grounded claim is that off-world systems should not treat navigation and communications as separate afterthoughts. The speculative claim is that a mature PulsarMesh becomes a chronogeodesic commons: a civilization-scale coordinate ritual anchored by neutron-star clocks, beam lighthouses, and signed memories moving through intermittent light cones. This paper defines a position-time-trust state, a contact-and-observation graph, a bundle-native navigation object, and an evidence program from cislunar testbeds to interplanetary relay swarms. It accepts the hard limits of relativity and intermittent connectivity while proposing an auditable layer that can grow from Moon networks to asteroid industry and eventually interstellar precursor missions.