January 2016 - Deep Space Atomic Clock

Deep Space Atomic Clock

January 14 & 15

Atomic clocks are an integral, yet almost invisible component of modern life. They provide the foundation of the now-ubiquitous Global Positioning System (GPS) enabling an entire industry of location-aware applications. They also underpin the global financial and trading system where transactions have to be tagged to millisecond precision. For space exploration, they have been the foundational frequency standard for NASA's Deep Space Network. NASA's Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC) Technology Demonstration Mission, led by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has been maturing the latest Atomic Clock technologies into a smaller, less massive package suitable for installation on a variety of deep space probes to enhance navigation precision and gravity science across the solar system.

Speaker(s):
Dr. Todd Ely, DSAC Principal Investigator, JPL
Allen H. Farrington, DSAC Project Manager, JPL