NASA is preparing to fly a (Deep Space Atomic Clock) DSAC,
demonstration that will revolutionize the way we conduct deep-space
navigation by enabling a spacecraft to calculate its own timing and
navigation data in real time. This one-way navigation technology would
improve upon the current two-way system in which information is sent to
Earth, requiring a ground team to calculate timing and navigation and
then transmit it back to the spacecraft. A real-time, onboard
navigation capability is key to improving NASA's capabilities for
executing time critical events, such as a planetary landing or
planetary "flyby," when signal delays are too great for the ground to
interact with the spacecraft during the event.
"Adopting DSAC on future NASA missions will increase navigation and
radio science data quantity by two to three times, improve data quality
by up to 10 times and reduce mission costs by shifting toward a more
flexible and extensible one-way radio navigation architecture," said
Todd Ely, principal investigator of the Deep Space Atomic Clock
Technology Demonstration at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, Calif. The project is part of NASA's Technology Demonstration
Missions program, managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala., for NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist in
Washington.
