NASA’s science team has deployed a new quantum-based tool at the International Space Station’s Cold Atom Lab to measure forces such as gravity and magnetic fields that could support advancing technologies for aircraft and shift navigation.
Called an atom interferometer, the sensor measured subtle ISS vibrations for the team’s study that also recorded the longest demonstration of atoms’ wave-like nature in space freefall, NASA said.
Other potential uses of space-based gravity sensors include uncovering the composition and surface mass changes of planets and moons, the agency added.
Precise gravity measurements can also help unlock the cosmological puzzles of dark matter and dark energy, according to NASA.
The agency launched the Cold Atom Lab in 2018 to advance quantum science in a long-term facility operating in low Earth orbit’s microgravity environment.
The lab can cool atoms at low temperature levels that make them macroscopic and easier to study through quantum technology approaches.
The Biological and Physical Sciences division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington sponsored the lab, which was designed and built by JPL, a Caltech division in Pasadena, California.