The Seam
Drift margin
The spatial error a crossing is permitted to land inside — and it tightens across the decades.
In full
Early deep-field work accepted about half an astronomical unit of error. By the later era the same service worked to eight hundredths. The narrowing margin is the clearest single measure of the craft improving, and of how much was being tolerated at the start.
Key facts
- Early era: roughly ±0.5 AU.
- Later era: roughly ±0.08 AU.
- A direct measure of institutional competence over time.
- Exceeded, it becomes hard drift.