TECH

NASA tests clock that promises to revolutionize space exploration
NASA has the development of several technologies at its disposal and one of them is the Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC), an atomic clock designed to improve "time counting" from Space.The advance will allow greater autonomy and speed in the decisions that the astronauts have to take, since this no longer depends on the navigation messages sent from Earth.Under construction for the past 20 years, the goal is for the DSAC to time (in) very few nanoseconds. The tests that NASA is going to conduct aim to confirm that the atomic clock can maintain an accuracy of 2 nanoseconds (0.000000002 seconds) over a day. The final goal will be to reach an accuracy of 0.3 nanoseconds.Time in Space has been "counted" by atomic clocks on Earth for decades. "Doing this directly from space is the DSAC's proposal," says Todd Ely, the project leader from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.The atomic clock has been getting smaller and is currently the size of a "four-slice toaster," according to NASA, but the goal is to be more miniaturized for future missions.To learn more about DSAC, visit www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/clock.

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