Nasa to turn ISS into coldest spot in the universe
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NASA|Jet Propulsion Laboratory|International Space Station|coldest spot in the universe|Universe
This
hitherto unknown project, known as the Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL), is
being led by an Indian woman, Anita Sengupta, who hails from West
Bengal.
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MUMBAI: Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at Pasadena in California is developing an experiment which will make the International Space Station (ISS) the coldest spot in the universe, quite literally.
Interestingly, this hitherto unknown project, known as the Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL), is being led by an Indian woman, Anita Sengupta, who hails from West Bengal. Prior to this she led the supersonic parachute development for the highly successful Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission which landed the Curiosity rover on the Red Planet on August 6, 2012.
In an email interview to TOI, Anita, who is planning to visit India later this year, explained that the main role of the new laboratory, which will become a part of the ISS in 2016, will be to explore new quantum physics in an extremely cold temperature regime that cannot be explored in earth-based laboratories.
"It is a regime where matter ceases to behave like particles , but instead like a wave,'' she said, while pointing out that it may be representative of the way matter was at the formation of the universe. "This is a very exciting fundamental physics experiment that will make the ISS the coldest spot in the universe , quite literally. We will see new physics only enabled by the microgravity environment of the ISS,'' she said.
The 17-nation ISS operates in the low earth orbit at an altitude of about 370km.
"We started the development in October 2012 and will launch roughly in April 2016. We are in the design phase now. It will be installed by astronauts into the ISS and operated remotely by us at JPL,'' she stated. According to her, CAL is likely to be launched by the Dragon cargo vehicle.
Interestingly, this hitherto unknown project, known as the Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL), is being led by an Indian woman, Anita Sengupta, who hails from West Bengal. Prior to this she led the supersonic parachute development for the highly successful Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission which landed the Curiosity rover on the Red Planet on August 6, 2012.
In an email interview to TOI, Anita, who is planning to visit India later this year, explained that the main role of the new laboratory, which will become a part of the ISS in 2016, will be to explore new quantum physics in an extremely cold temperature regime that cannot be explored in earth-based laboratories.
"It is a regime where matter ceases to behave like particles , but instead like a wave,'' she said, while pointing out that it may be representative of the way matter was at the formation of the universe. "This is a very exciting fundamental physics experiment that will make the ISS the coldest spot in the universe , quite literally. We will see new physics only enabled by the microgravity environment of the ISS,'' she said.
The 17-nation ISS operates in the low earth orbit at an altitude of about 370km.
"We started the development in October 2012 and will launch roughly in April 2016. We are in the design phase now. It will be installed by astronauts into the ISS and operated remotely by us at JPL,'' she stated. According to her, CAL is likely to be launched by the Dragon cargo vehicle.
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