No one keeps time quite like NASA.
Last month, the space agency's next-generation atomic clock was joined to the spacecraft that will take it into orbit in late 2017.
That instrument, the Deep Space Atomic Clock was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. On Feb. 17, JPL engineers monitored integration of the clock on to the Surrey Orbital Test Bed spacecraft at Surrey Satellite Technology in Englewood, Colorado.
No one keeps time quite like NASA.
Last month, the space agency's next-generation atomic clock was joined to the spacecraft that will take it into orbit in late 2017.
That instrument, the Deep Space Atomic Clock was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. On Feb. 17, JPL engineers monitored integration of the clock on to the Surrey Orbital Test Bed spacecraft at Surrey Satellite Technology in Englewood, Colorado.
Timekeeping plays a critical role in spacecraft navigation and will be especially important for future deep space missions. This clock will be smaller, lighter and magnitudes more precise than any atomic clock flown in space before.
Most spacecraft are tracked using "two-way" methods: the ground-based antenna 'pings' the spacecraft and waits for the signal to return. By measuring how long the signal takes to travel, the distance to the spacecraft can be calculated. A navigation team then processes this information to determine the spacecraft's flight path and determine if any course corrections are required.
Read more at Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Image: Employees at Surrey Satellite US in Englewood, Colorado recently integrated JPL's Deep Space Atomic Clock payload on to their Orbital Test Bed Spacecraft. (Image Credit: Surrey Satellite Technology)
