45968817 Solar sail and the atomic clock will cost NASA in tens of millions of dollars
NASA announced three projects under the program Technology Demonstration Missions will be $ 175 million to implement. The winners, selected from 47 applicants, began the project of solar sails, laser communications system in space and on-board ultra-precise atomic clocks for space vehicles. This was reported on the agency's website. All projects will be tested in real conditions. The report said that the communication system using the laser in case of successful implementation will allow to transfer large amounts of data – the speed of such a system will exceed the current (radio-) analogues of two orders of magnitude. Optical communication may well be applied in the next generation of space vehicles – particularly such a system will be useful when creating interplanetary missions. How the project will be tested, is unknown. On-board atomic clocks (The Deep Space Atomic Clock) at least 10 times surpass the accuracy of modern analogues, used on board spacecraft. As a "pendulum" in these hours are the mercury ions. The use of such systems will not only increase the accuracy of interplanetary missions, but also lead to increased accuracy, for example, GPS. The system will be tested on board the satellite company Iridium. Solar sail spacecraft will create that during the flight you will spend less fuel. The idea of creating these sails, which use light pressure to bring the machine in motion, there was still in the 20s in Russia. The first practical deployment of the sail was held on the ship "Progress" February 4, 1993 under the "banner". The first device, in practice, checked the solar sail technology in action, became IKAROS – it sail area was 200 square meters, has allowed the unit in 2010 to reach Venus. The area of a new sail, which will create the company L'Garde, will exceed the existing analogues at times. The project is a clock and a sail plan to test in the next three years. The technology of optical communication requires at least four years for implementation. Startups projects scheduled for 2015 and 2016. The purpose of the program Technology Demonstration Missions – creation of advanced technologies, which in a very short time can be realized in practice and joined NASA.
