[time-nuts] Space mission comes to an end because of a "computer time tagging" problem

[Jim Lux]

On 9/21/13 5:41 AM, Bob Camp wrote:
> Hi
>
> I'd be a bit surprised if they were running anything as power hungry as an Rb all the time when a quartz based device would be smaller / lower power / lower volume. Of course they may have had mission requirements that drive them to a hydrogen maser ...
>
>

Quartz is king..
either a TCXO or maybe an OCXO or USO

But this is why the Deep Space Atomic Clock (a trapped Hg+ ion clock) is 
so interesting. It has the potential of beating the USO in performance, 
size, mass, and delivery lead time.

A USO takes a long time to build. You need to get a bunch of crystals 
and oscillators and run them to see what the aging characteristics are, etc.

An atomic standard doesn't have the "carefully selected crystal" issue.