The Government Circuit: News on Defense Electronics, Europe, and Sustainability
American Made Advocacy: Taking the Fight to Capitol Hill
Defense Speak Interpreted: SWaPing Nanosatellites for Defense Systems
Strengthening Our Space Technology Future: Snapshots of Success
January 11, 2016 | NASAEstimated reading time: 7 minutes
Significant progress has been made, Jurczyk reports, on the Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC).
In terms of technology, this project pushes the reset button on precision navigation in space. DSAC is headed for a test flight in September 2016.
DSAC team members wrapped up clock integration as well as clock functional, performance, vibration and thermal vacuum testing before its delivery to payload integration and testing in July 2015.
Those tests have aided in a step-by-step maturing of the DSAC’s design, composed of a small, ultra-precise, mercury-ion atomic clock, and have helped to greenlight its delivery as a host payload for liftoff in 2016.
DSAC will be onboard a Surrey Satellite Technology U.S. spacecraft as part of the U.S. Air Force’s Space Test Program (STP-2) mission to launch into Earth’s orbit atop a Space X Falcon 9 Heavy booster.
Once DSAC is on orbit, this next-generation tool will be put through its paces for spacecraft navigation and radio science, as well as its application to global positioning systems. DSAC technology can improve navigation of spacecraft to distant destinations and enable collection of more data with better precision. In fact, DSAC offers the promise of being 50 times more accurate than today’s best navigation clocks.
“The Deep Space Atomic Clock can provide higher precision navigation for our next generation Global Positioning Satellite constellation,” Jurczyk observes. “It could potentially also enable gravity mapping of one of Jupiter’s most puzzling moons, Europa.”
Nonstop thrust
Pioneering cost-effective access across the inner solar system is the bottom line of STMD’s work on solar electric propulsion. Indeed, treks across the inner solar system—to asteroids and distant Mars— are on tap for utilizing Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP).
This SEP technology makes feasible more affordable missions for commercial and government operations in Earth orbit and beyond, Jurczyk adds.
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