Moon had been visited by spacecrafts that heavily rely on directions from the control stations on Earth. The communication between the crafts and the stations is crucial to guide the path of the vehicle across space. With that said, NASA's Deep Space Atomic Clock is developing a new system that would give astronomers a chance to navigate freely through their crafts on future explorations.
Refrigerator-Sized Deep Space Atomic Clocks Improve Autonomy in Spacecrafts for Future Missions
The new system, identified as stability, can assist GPS stellite operations that conduct navigation while on Earth. The development of this technology will possibly be the next step towards the autonomy of future GPS spacecrafts.
NASA's stability project was recently published in the study published in the journal Nature entitled "Demonstration of a trapped-ion atomic clock in space." According to the paper, the development of the system is in its next stages, reporting improvements on space-based atomic clock examinations over longer periods of time.
Like the previous process of old spacecraft systems, experts send signals from space back to Earth for trajectory calculation. In this process, astronomers utilize grounded atomic clocks the size of refrigerators to record the signal's fluctuations and synchronization. These readings will provide the precise location of the spacecrafts. On the other hand, vessels based on Mars and other farther regions in space might be slower at sending signals.
Based on the study, spacecraft that carry atomic clocks have the ability to calculate their current position and estimate potential directions. The experts note that the accuracy of the navigation depends on the stability of the clocks. To get the expected results from the projection of spacecrafts, these clocks are required to be updated several times per day to sustain the stability levels. Once the development of the system is complete, space-based clocks are expected to be used in future deep-space missions.
Long-Term Stability of Atomic Clocks Set for Future Missions, Including VERITAS to Venus
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Deep Space Atomic Clock was already being utilized since 2019 aboard the General Atomic Orbital Test Bed. In reference to the new study, experts have documented 10 times more stability than the initial space-based atomic clocks currently hovering in space, setting a new record on the long-term stability of the clocks.
The recorded improvements on the stability and time delay of the clocks were significantly better than the results found in the previous examination by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The improvement is not based on the clock device itself but the stability measurement through the clock. The research was made possible through the years of consecutive data, improving the precision of the measurements.
The Deep Space Atomic Clock mission will be finished in August, but NASA reported that the space clockwork technology development would not stop. Several missions are now at hand, including the Venus Emissivity Radio Science, InSAR Topography, Spectroscopy, or VERITAS, which will utilize the new version of the atomic clock.
Deep Space Atomic Clock-2 will be onboard the spacecraft on the journey to Venus and will serve as a technology demonstration. Among its goal was to record examinations for developing instruments that are not yet existing in the form of hardware or software. The new space clock system will be funded by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate STMD, and will be constructed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, reports Clarksville Online.
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