NASA’s Cold Atom Lab is getting its second major upgrade and will be using it to explore the quantum realm. A major hardware update for NASA’s Cold Atom Lab lifted off aboard a Northrop Grumman Cygnus resupply spacecraft on August 1, on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). About the
A Northrop Grumman Cygnus resupply spacecraft – carrying over 8,200 pounds of science investigations and cargo for the International Space Station, including a hardware upgrade for the Cold Atom Lab – lifts off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on August 1. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechAtoms and particles are the building blocks of all known matter in the universe. However, they don’t always behave like the bigger objects they compose.
Cold Atom Lab makes it easier to study the quantum behaviors of atoms. One way is by chilling atoms to small fractions of a degree above the lowest temperature matter can reach, absolute zero. This causes the atoms to move more slowly, which makes them easier to study. In addition, some atoms at this temperature can collectively form a Bose-Einstein Condensate, a state of matter wherein their quantum behaviors, which are typically microscopic, can be observed on a macroscopic scale.
and other unique shapes that are impossible to form on Earth. This reveals how different geometries affect the behavior of quantum materials.The Cold Atom Lab upgrade will produce two to three times more atoms for each experiment inside the facility. “That’s analogous to upgrading to a telescope with higher resolution,” said Williams. “With more atoms, scientists can collect more data in each experiment, and they can also expand the variety of experiments they can do.
Scientists will get more nuanced views of the behaviors of the ultracold atoms, including their physical dynamics as they evolve and their interactions with one another. And since atom clouds naturally cool as they expand, more atoms also mean the atoms can reach colder temperatures before they fully disperse.
“We hope that Cold Atom Lab will mark the start of an era where quantum tools are used regularly in space,” said Kamal Oudrhiri, the project manager for Cold Atom Lab at. “Because of Cold Atom Lab, we’ve shown that these delicate quantum tools are reliable and even upgradable in space. It’s our hope that Cold Atom Lab will be just the first of many quantum space missions to come.
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