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NASA has so much spaceship on Mars It's a challenge to communicate with everyone, but the technology launched later this month could eliminate this problem in the future.
This technology is the Atomic clock of deep space, a test system developed by NASA for two decades. It is designed to help spaceships navigate and communicate without the help of the Earth needing so much help. The STP-2 mission, whose launch on board is planned SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket June 24, will perform the first test of the clock in the space.
"Each spacecraft that explores space today in space relies on a navigation here on Earth to indicate where it is and, more importantly, where it is heading," said Jill. Seubert, navigator in the deep space of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA in California. "We have to sail from Earth because the clocks aboard spaceships do not measure time precisely, but if we can change that, we can revolutionize the way we can navigate deep spaces." "
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And this is where the atomic clock in deep space comes into play. atomic clocks it will not travel in space, it can measure time to a billionth of a second – but it takes room for a gallon pot, not for a refrigerator. This miniaturization means that the instrument can be loaded onto a spacecraft and launched.
Once in space, the clock should be able to keep the time accurately without any intervention of the Earth. It's a stark contrast to modern clocks GPS satellites, which must be corrected twice a day to stay on time. But accurate timing is essential for spacecraft navigation, Seubert said.
"Tracking a spaceship while it's moving in space is basically a time measurement problem," she said. "We can not just pull a ruler and measure how far away our spacecraft is, so we measure how long it takes for this craft to echo a radio signal sent from Earth."
Technicians integrate the atomic clock of NASA's deep space into its satellite orbiting the test bench, which will be launched as part of the STP-2 mission on a SpaceX Falcon rocket Heavy in June 2019.
(Image: © General Atomics)
These radio signals are coded with a precise timestamp of when they were produced. And because these radio signals are light waves and the the speed of light is constantit is a simple mathematical problem to solve for the distance traveled by the signal. The signal must only travel from Earth to the spaceship, and the shipboard computer can navigate from there.
This autonomy would offer huge benefits to congested destinations such as Mars and spacecraft at outer edges of the solar system, where the communication back and forth with the Earth takes too much time to be practical.
Only one or two of NASA's Deep Space network outposts, which communicate with all spacecraft in the agency, can point to Mars at any time. And for the moment, the network must ping every visitor of the spacecraft to help him stay on course. "All spacecraft currently on Mars must share tracking time with the Deep Space network," said Seubert. "They share time essentially."
This is why the ability of the atomic clock to navigate on the basis of a simple unidirectional radio signal is so attractive: all the spaceships of the red planet can simultaneously check their position using the same signal, without time sharing. "What this means is that you can support an infinite number of spaceships going to or around Mars with this architecture," Seubert said.
And the system can also be used by rovers and humans on the surface of Mars or to even more ambitious destinations, said Seubert; the system would work as a more exotic GPS form.
"Imagine an astronaut hiking on Mars, and maybe Olympus Mons will stand in the background," said Seubert. "She's checking out her Google Maps edition on Mars to find out where she is and where she's going."
This scenario is still far into the future, but getting the first step is to get real data on the operation of the atomic clock in deep space. Once the instrument is safely in orbit, Seubert and his colleagues will confirm that he is maintaining the time and can withstand a year in the dangerous environment of space. They will use the GPS data to control the readings of the instrument.
The Deep Space Atomic Clock mission cost NASA $ 80 million.
Visit Space.com on June 24 for full coverage of the launch of the Falcon Heavy and the STP-2 mission.
Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her. @meghanbartels. follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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