[time-nuts] NASA press-release about launch of mercury-ion atomic clock

[Peter Vince]

NASA have just issued a press-release about a forthcoming SpaceX Falcon
launch scheduled for Saturday the 22nd of June.  Two satellites should be
of particular interest to this group: a mercury-ion atomic clock, and some
cube-sats intended to help characterise the atmosphere in order to improve
the accuracy of GPS reception.  NASA press releases can be seen here:
https://www.nasa.gov/news/releases/latest/index.html

The latest, in part, reads:

May 15, 2019
MEDIA ADVISORY M19-037
Media Invited to SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch of Four NASA Missions
Media accredation is open for SpaceX’s third Falcon Heavy launch.

...

The Enhanced Tandem Beacon Experiment (E-TBEx) explores “bubbles” in the
electrically-charged layers of Earth's upper atmosphere, which can disrupt
key communications and GPS signals that we rely on down on the ground. Such
bubbles currently appear and evolve unpredictably, making them difficult to
characterize from the ground. Increasing our understanding of them will
help us prevent the disruption of the many radio signals that pass through
Earth's upper atmosphere. The two NASA CubeSats on this mission will work
in concert with the six satellites of NOAA's COSMIC-2 mission. Varying
orbital positions among the eight spacecraft will give scientists chances
to study these bubbles from multiple angles at once.

See:  https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/cosmic-2-mission


A new kind of atomic clock aims to let spacecraft conduct precise
navigation on their own, instead of waiting for trajectory information from
Earth. This versatile technology also has science and exploration
applications. The Deep Space Atomic Clock can be used to study planetary
gravity fields and atmospheres, or could even enable a GPS-like capability
on the surface of the Moon. The technology demonstration mission, developed
by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is the primary
payload on General Atomics’ Orbital Test Bed spacecraft.

See: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/clock/index.html


...

To learn more about the STP-2 mission, visit:

https://www.spacex.com/stp-2