On January 11th 2018, NASA announced that it has successfully tested an autonomous x-ray navigation system. The system is called Neutron-star Interior Composition Explorer or NICER, and it is an orbital observatory that is currently attached to the exterior of the International Space Station. NICER monitors the clock work like pulses that are emitted by rapidly rotating neutron stars know as pulsars.
NICER works on a principle similar to the Global Positioning System, or (GPS) that uses atomic clocks mounted on satellites that orbit the Earth. It, however, as an x-ray telescope, uses x-rays to probe the nature of ultra dense matter. In November of 2017, a research team used pulsars that rotate thousands of times a second (millisecond pulsars), to determine the location of an object that was traveling at thousands of miles an hour through space.
NASA believes that the development of the NICER technology will make the navigation of automated deep space missions much more accurate. Current deep space missions rely on what's know as the Deep Space Network or DNS, which is a global system of radio antennas.
No comments:
Post a Comment