NASA
New technology uses ultra-cold atoms to detect minor changes in earth severity from orbit. Device can help exploit distant planets.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in southern California is creating the first quantum sensor designed to measure gravity from space.
The project, supported by NASA’s Earth Sciences Technology Office (Esta), as well as a large step in quantum detection, unlock new and powerful ways to observe non -visible characteristics such as oil or mineral deposits or underground water reserves.
“We could determine the mass of the Himalayas using atoms,” Jason Hyon, chief technologist of the Earth Sciences in the JPL and director of the JPL Quantum Space Innovation Center, one of the published authors
The new QGGPF will use Two clouds of ultra-cold rubidium atoms as test masses. “With atoms, I can guarantee that all measurements will be the same. We are less sensitive to environmental effects,” explains physicist Sheng-Wey Chiow.
The device will have about 0.3 cubic yards (0.25 cubic meters) volume and will only weigh about 125 kilograms.
“No one has tried to ride one of these instruments,” warns Ben Stray, a postdoctoral researcher at the JPL. “We need to pilot it so that we can find its operation, which will allow us not only to advance the quantum gradimeter, but also quantum technology in general.”
The launch of this new technology is marked for the end of the decade, and the main objective is manipulate interactions between light and matter to the atomic scale.
“The QGGPF instrument will lead to planetary science applications and fundamental physics applications,” says Hyon.
