The most precise clock ever flown in space may not inspire thrills, but it could be the key to safely sending people to Mars
The appropriately named Deep Space Atomic Clock was successfully activated last week after it launched in June, NASA said. With it, astronauts traveling to Mars and beyond can safely navigate anywhere where signal is spotty. An atomic clock must be hyper-precise for travel through deep space, where everything is bigger and mistakes quickly can add up.
That's because standard atomic clocks use neutral atoms, which can be impacted by environmental changes in space like changes in temperature or atmospheric pressure.But NASA's Deep Space Atomic Clock is up to 50 times more stable than standard atomic clocks because it's powered by mercury ions. The ions' electric charge means they can be contained in an electromagnetic trap that safeguard them, NASA said.
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