The International Space Station is now home to an even more capable quantum laboratory, where NASA cools atoms to nearly absolute zero to study one of the strangest states of matter known.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have activated NASA’s newly upgraded Cold Atom Lab, a unique research facility that helps scientists investigate the fundamental nature of matter while advancing the next generation of quantum technologies. Taking advantage of the station’s microgravity environment, the laboratory can perform experiments that cannot be achieved on Earth.
Quantum science focuses on the smallest building blocks of nature, including atoms, electrons, and individual particles of light. Although atoms are often pictured as tiny solid spheres, they can also behave like waves, exist in multiple places at once, and even pass through one another under the right conditions.
About the size of a minifridge and controlled remotely from Earth, the Cold Atom Lab cools atoms to temperatures below minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 237 degrees Celsius). At temperatures just above absolute zero, the atoms combine into a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), an unusual state of matter sometimes called the fifth state after solids, liquids, gases, and plasma. Even though a BEC is much larger than individual particles, it still follows the strange rules of quantum mechanics. The microgravity of low Earth orbit also allows these matter waves to grow larger than they can on Earth.
“At the coldest temperatures, matter behaves drastically different from anything we have experienced,” said Jason Williams, project scientist for Cold Atom Lab at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which built the facility. “The wavelike nature of matter dominates, and ultracold matter can behave in ways that are not only unexpected, but that also enable extremely precise measurements of time, gravity, and motion. The lab has lots of tools — especially with this latest upgrade — to let us probe the nature of the universe.”
The facility currently supports five international research teams investigating fundamental physics. It also serves as a testing ground for quantum technologies that could eventually be used for Earth science missions and future space exploration.
How NASA’s Cold Atom Lab Works
The core of the Cold Atom Lab is its science module, a sophisticated collection of instruments. A newly upgraded version of this module arrived at the space station on April 11 aboard a Commercial Resupply Services mission, expanding the range of experiments scientists can perform.
Each experiment begins by heating a strip of rubidium or potassium metal to as high as 750 °F (400 °C), producing a gas inside a vacuum chamber. Scientists then fire lasers tuned to specific frequencies at the gas. The lasers remove energy from the atoms by slowing them down, dramatically lowering their temperature. After laser cooling is complete, a magnetic trap captures the atoms. Additional cooling techniques reduce their energy even further until the cloud of atoms is nearly motionless, allowing researchers to maximize the time it can be studied in microgravity.
Laboratories on Earth can also create ultracold gases, but the International Space Station provides major advantages. In orbit, scientists can observe quantum gases for longer periods and at even lower temperatures. The low-gravity environment also allows larger matter waves to form and interact with gravity for longer durations. To make these experiments possible, NASA condensed an atom physics laboratory that would normally fill an entire room of lasers, mirrors, and equipment into a single rack aboard the space station.
“As the first project to create Bose-Einstein condensates in orbit, we’re demonstrating that we can make quantum technology work reliably in space,” said Ethan Elliott, deputy project scientist for Cold Atom Lab at JPL. “In the previous century, there was a quantum revolution that led to lasers, cellphones, and MRIs for medical imaging. We’re performing quantum 2.0 — direct manipulation of large quantum states — and we hope for similar gains in quantum tech by advancing this science in orbit.”
New Upgrade Expands Quantum Research
This latest improvement marks the fourth upgrade since the Cold Atom Lab was installed aboard the International Space Station in 2018. Among the most significant changes is a redesigned magnetic trap that lets scientists alter the shape of quantum gas clouds, making it possible to investigate new properties of the atoms. Engineers also introduced redesigned metal strips that provide improved sources for creating those gas clouds.
“It’s the closest thing we have to controlling the boundary of the quantum world,” said Kamal Oudrhiri, project manager of Cold Atom Lab at JPL, referring to those low temperatures. “This new upgrade pushes that boundary even further.”
Oudrhiri said the improvements also “demonstrates NASA’s ability to maintain U.S. leadership in space-based quantum technologies while maturing future quantum instruments, such as matter-wave interferometers for fundamental physics missions, positioning, navigation, timing, and gravity sensing of Earth, the Moon, and beyond.”
Advancing Science in Space
The Cold Atom Lab is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, while NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory designed, built, and continues to operate the facility. The project is sponsored by the Biological and Physical Sciences division within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
The division uses the unique conditions of space to carry out scientific investigations that cannot be performed on Earth. By studying biological and physical processes in these extreme environments, researchers gain the knowledge needed to support future deep space exploration while also producing discoveries and technologies that can benefit life on Earth.
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