The mobile atomic clock is one trillionth of a second error

The US government is working on a project to develop a portable optical atomic clock that is 100 times more accurate than a microwave atomic clock.

The US government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced the Powerful Optical Clock Network (ROCkN) program, which aims to build a compact enough ultra-precise optical atomic clock. to place inside military aircraft or vehicles on the battlefield.

NASA's Deep Space Atomic Clock.

In military operations, aircraft need nanosecond precision to fire weapons at high speed and maximum range. Even a difference of a billionth of a second can cause a missile to miss its target. To overcome this, the military relies heavily on satellite navigation (GPS), but this technology is not always available and can be subject to interference by enemy troops.

Atomic clocks could provide a solution through allowing units on the battlefield to determine the time with super-accuracy without the need to connect to GPS. The technology uses microwave beams to measure the frequencies of atoms as they change energy states. The most accurate type of atomic clock is an optical atomic clock that uses a beam of light instead of a microwave beam, increasing its accuracy 100 times. Optical atomic clocks are so accurate that they have not strayed a second in the universe's more than 13 billion years of history. These machines are usually quite bulky, but DARPA's ROCKn program wants to make the device smaller and lighter for mounting on military vehicles and even satellites.

"Our goal is to transform an optical atomic clock from a complicated configuration in the lab into a small and powerful version that can work outside," said Tatjana Curcic, project manager in the Science Department Defense of DARPA, said. "If we succeed, this type of atomic clock will be 100 times more accurate than a microwave atomic clock. The ROCkN program could create many important technologies, leading to a network of clocks." future potential".

Atomic clock technology also has applications in space exploration. In 2019, NASA activated the Deep Space Atomic Clock, allowing for precise positioning in space. Similarly, a portable optical atomic clock will make it easier to navigate future spacecraft.