Texas Engineers are leading a multi-university ラーメンベット 本人確認 team that will build technology and tools to improve measurement ofimportant climate factorsby observing atoms in outer space.
They willfocuson the concept of ラーメンベット 本人確認 sensing, which use ラーメンベット 本人確認 physics principles to potentially collect more precise data and enable unprecedented science measurements. These sensorscould help satellites in orbit collect data about how atoms react to small changes in their environment,and using that to infer the time-variations in the gravity field of the Earth.This will enable scientists to improve how accurately several important climate processes can be measured, such as sea level rise, ice melt rates, changes in land-water resources and ocean heat storage changes.
This will be the first effort to establish a new phase in ラーメンベット 本人確認 technology development, advancing beyond the ラーメンベット 本人確認 principles known in physics and actually translating them into usable device concepts.
"There have been tremendous advances in quantum methods recently, mostly in the context of computing," said Srinivas Bettadpur, leader of the new project and professor in the Department of Aerospace ラーメンベット 本人確認 and ラーメンベット 本人確認 Mechanics at The University of Texas at Austin."We want to use quantum sensing technology in space– where you can watch the entirety of the planet –to solve next-generation problemsbyobserving, interpretingand understandingclimate processes."
The new ラーメンベット 本人確認 Pathways Institute includes researchers from UT Austin, University of Colorado Boulder, University of California Santa Barbara,California Institute of Technologyandthe U.S.National Institute for Standards and Technology. The researchers will receive up to million in funding from NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate over five years for the institute.
The researchers will specifically look at changes in gravitational forces and what that means for climate. As climate shifts–with ice caps melting and sea levels and temperatures changing–that changes gravitational forces around the earth and in outer space. Atoms orbiting the earth react to those gravitational changes. By measuring those reactions, the researchers cangive better readings of changes in climate processes.
The challenge for the team is two-fold. Parts of these sensing technologies exist today, but a lot of what they are building is new.Add to thatthechallenge of sending these instruments into orbit.
"You can't have manual maintenance in space–once you sendsomethingout, it's out of reach; you cannot see it," saidBettadpur. "You have to put in a great deal of work to make sure the instrument will fly and the technology will function for several years, at least, to enable the discoveries."
To build this technology from the ground up, and make it space ready, requires a large and diverse team of researchers. Bettadpur is an expert in orbital mechanics,gravity fields and space mission design.
Seth Bank and Dan Wasserman, professors in the Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer ラーメンベット 本人確認 at UT Austin, will work with Daniel Blumenthal from UC Santa Barbara to develop the photonic, or light-based, integrated circuits for compact chips to measuresmall variations in Earth’s gravity from space.Ufuk Topcu, associate professor in the Department of Aerospace ラーメンベット 本人確認 and ラーメンベット 本人確認 Mechanics and the Oden Institute for Computational ラーメンベット 本人確認 and Sciences, will apply his expertise in modeling complex systems to develop models for quantum sensing systems that can be used to improve their reliability and autonomous operation–both of which are key for space applications where device maintenance is not an option.
Other team members– and their areas of expertise –on the project include:
- From Colorado Boulder, Dana Anderson, an expert in experimental ラーメンベット 本人確認 physics and instrumentation;Penina Axelrad, an expert in ラーメンベット 本人確認 navigation and timing; Murray Holland, theoretical physics and ラーメンベット 本人確認 machine learning; Marco Nicotra, ラーメンベット 本人確認 optical control;
- From Caltech, Michael Watkins, former director of the Center for Space ラーメンベット 本人確認 at UT Austin, former director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and an expert in systems, spaceflight and gravity science;
- And from the National Institute for Standards and Technology, Michelle Stephens, a physicist and expert in precision measurement for space and ラーメンベット 本人確認 applications.
