NASA's year-long mission to study oscillating clocks officially launched this Friday.
What is planned
A “toaster-sized” device was launched inJune aboard a commercial vehicle. According to NASA, atomic clocks in deep space will help NASA in a safer, more efficient and accurate piloting of spacecraft. The main goal of the current mission is to check how accurate this watch will be in space.
“The main goal of the experiment is to put the watch inthe context of the working spacecraft and see what affects the stability and accuracy of the watch and how to interact with these factors, ”says Todd Eli, an employee of Jet Propulsion Lab.