Secret US Space Plane Tests Quantum Navigation Technology Instantly
X-37B, The US Space Force secret spacecraft will soon fly again.
Monday, Space Force announcement Next month, the program’s eighth mission will fly a small space shuttle vehicle. The Falcon 9 rocket vehicle launch is expected to occur earlier than August 21st from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Space Force Fleet has two active X-37Bs, both of which are built by Boeing. First, he made his debut flight in April 2010. Since then, the two untempered spacecraft have had a long flight in succession. The first was the longest latest flight in 908 days from 2020 to 2022. The second recently flew, landing on March 7th at the Vandenberg Space Force Base 434 days later in orbit.
The first of these two vehicles is both about 29 feet (9 meters) long, and about a quarter of the length of one of NASA’s Space Shuttle Orbiters could be released next month.
Some details about upcoming flights
Over the past decade and a half, space forces have been deeply silent about the purpose of this spaceplane, flying through classified payloads and providing only limited information about the purpose of each flight.
However, in this flight, the OTV-8, the military provided a little more detail on its intentions. The vehicle will fly with service modules that expand the capabilities of the experiment, allowing it to host payloads for the Air Force Research Institute and the Defense Innovation Unit.
Mission goals include testing “High-bandwidth interskin laser communication technology.”
“The demonstration of laser communications on the OTV-8 tells us a critical step in the US Space Force’s ability to leverage commercial space networks as part of the US space space structure.” “Doing so will enhance the resilience, reliability, adaptability, and data transport speed of the satellite communications architecture.”
Navigate in a world without GPS
Additionally, Space Plane will develop new navigation technologies based on electromagnetic interference. The Space Force News release characterizes it as “the highest performance quantum inertial sensor ever tested in space.”
Boeing I’ve tested it before A quantum inertia measuring unit that uses conventional aircraft atomic interferometry to detect rotation and acceleration. Currently, advanced versions of technology are moving into space and demonstrating its viability. The goal of spatial testing is to demonstrate precise positioning, navigation and timing in environments where GPS services are not available.
“Conclusion: Testing this technology will help you navigate in conflict environments where GPS may deteriorate or be rejected,” says Saltzman. I said in a social media post We will explain the flight on Monday.
Quantum inertial sensors can also be used near the moon, where there is no comparable GPS capabilities, or for further exploration of the solar system.
In particular, the small X-37B has returned to being launched on a medium rocket with this new mission. meanwhile Latest flights finished in Marchthe spaceplane was launched into a heavy Falcon rocket for the first time. This allowed the X-37B to fly beyond low Earth orbit and reach an elliptical, high Earth orbit.
This story originally appeared Ars Technica.