Scientists are developing an advanced quantum sensor for low Earth orbit that can detect the most small tremors in the gravity of the Earth.
These barely understandable changes – due to shaking water, Tectonic activity Or Shifting Rock – Offer a clue about lies below the planet’s surface.
The new device can allow mapping of underground facilities like Aquifers and Mineral Deposes – Navigation, Resource Management and Important Data for National securityIts developers say.
The main technology for Earth science in NASA, Jason Hinn, we can determine the mass of the Himalayas using atoms, ” Jet propulsion laboratory Director of Southern California and JPL’s Quantum Space Innovation Center, said April 15 statement,
Connected: How a quantum sensor on ISS can revolutionize space exploration
Quantum sensors, such as quantum gravity gradioter pathphinder (QGGPF) instrument, developed by JPL, private companies and educational institutions, use atoms clouds, which were dropped into the freefol and cooled near the full zero.
Like -as they fall, act as laser mirrors and splitors, separate atoms and then bring them back together. The way atoms interfere, when they recreation, it reveals how much they were intensified by gravity, allowing scientists to measure the most small changes in gravity with extreme precision.
These state-of-the-art equipment, based on a technique called Atom Interferometry, are far more sensitive than traditional devices-and they are still improving. Researchers are now refining the technique to make it even more accurate and durable.
“With atoms, I can guarantee that every measurement will be the same. We are less sensitive to environmental effects,” said Sheng-Vay Chio, an practical physicist in JPL.
Because it uses atoms instead of heavy mechanical parts, the QGGPF sensor is surprisingly compact – about the size of a small washing machine – and weighs just 275 pounds (125 kg). This makes it much smaller and lighter than traditional space-based gravitational devices, which is a major advantage for space missions, where size, weight and launch costs are tightly forced.
NASA plans to give an in-space test to the new sensor in the late decade. The technology performance will put a suit of state -of -the -art devices for the performance mission test, which further the limits of interacting on light and atom the smallest parameters.
“No one has tried to blow up one of these tools,” said JPL’s postdorel researcher Ben Strey. “We need to blow it so that we can find out how well it will do, and it will not only allow us to pursue the quantum gravity gravity, but also quantum technology in general.”
