{"id":196792,"date":"2017-06-06T05:48:30","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T09:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/pulsar-based-navigation-system-to-get-test-on-space-station-space-com\/"},"modified":"2017-06-06T05:48:30","modified_gmt":"2017-06-06T09:48:30","slug":"pulsar-based-navigation-system-to-get-test-on-space-station-space-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/transhuman-news-blog\/space-station\/pulsar-based-navigation-system-to-get-test-on-space-station-space-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Pulsar-Based Navigation System to Get Test on Space Station &#8211; Space.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><p>    An experiment thatarrived    at the International Space Station today (June 5) will test    a celestial navigational system that one day may guide future    spaceships to Jupiter as efficiently as GPS satellites get you    to Starbucks.  <\/p>\n<p>    The Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology    (SEXTANT) experiment is among the projects planned for the    world's first telescope dedicated to observing neutron    stars, the densest known objects in the universe.  <\/p>\n<p>    Neutron stars form when a star roughly one to three times the    mass of the sun runs out of fuel for nuclear fusion and    collapses, crushing every proton and electron in its core. The    result is a ball of neutrons about 12.5 miles (20 kilometers)    across  roughly the size of a city  that contains as much    mass as the sun. [New    ISS Experiment Will Probe Neutron Stars (Video)]  <\/p>\n<p>    A teaspoon of a neutron star would weigh about 1 billion tons    (0.9 metric tons) here on Earth  as much as a mountain,    according to NASA.  <\/p>\n<p>    Artist's concept of a pulsar (blue-white disk in center)    pulling in matter from a nearby star (red disk at upper right).    The stellar material forms a disk around the pulsar    (multicolored ring) before falling onto the surface at the    magnetic poles. The pulsar's intense magnetic field is    represented by faint blue outlines surrounding the pulsar.  <\/p>\n<p>    Stars larger than three solar masses collapse into a     black hole, which are objects so dense with matter that not    even light can escape their gravitational fists.  <\/p>\n<p>    Unlike black holes, neutron stars radiate energy across a broad    range of frequencies, but they are most visible in their X-ray    beams, which will be the focus of the station's newly arrived    Neutron-star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER)    observatory.  <\/p>\n<p>    NICER, which will be robotically mounted to the outside of the    station, contains 56 X-ray mirrors to illuminate the structure    and inner workings of neutron stars. Of particular interest are    pulsars,    which are fast-spinning neutron stars with especially luminous    magnetic fields.  <\/p>\n<p>    An artist's illustration of the Neutron-star Interior    Composition Explorer, or NICER, on the International Space    Station.  <\/p>\n<p>    Pulsars emit powerful beams in opposite directions as they    spin. These beams are observable only when they're pointed    toward Earth, making it seem as if these objects pulse (hence    the name). In some cases, this apparent pulsing occurs with the    predictability and consistency of an     atomic clock.   <\/p>\n<p>    The fastest pulsars spin hundreds of times per second  faster    than the blades of a household blender, said physicist Zaven    Arzoumanian, lead researcher with the NICER project at NASA's    Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.  <\/p>\n<p>    \"The fact that we have these pulsars apparently flashing away    in the sky makes them interesting as tools,\" Arzoumanian said.      <\/p>\n<p>    \"You can imagine having a system of clocks, very accurate    clocks, distributed all over the sky,\" he said. \"In the same    way that we use atomic clocks on GPS satellites to navigate our    cars and ourselves on the surface of the Earth, we can use    these clock signals from the sky, from pulsars, to navigate    spacecraft anywhere in the solar system.\"  <\/p>\n<p>    The idea of navigating via pulsar is not new, but the    technology to autonomously detect and time the flashes is a    recent development. Once it's attached to the station, the    NICER telescope and SEXTANT software will run for an initial    18-month demonstration mission.  <\/p>\n<p>    The telescope is among nearly 3 tons (2.7 metric tons) of    supplies and experiments aboard the     SpaceX Dragon cargo ship that blasted off from NASA's    Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday (June 3) and    arrived this morning.  <\/p>\n<p>    Irene Klotz can be reached on Twitter at @free_space.    Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+.    Originally published on     Space.com.  <\/p>\n<p><!-- Auto Generated --><\/p>\n<p>View post:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.space.com\/37091-space-station-experiment-pulsar-positioning-system.html\" title=\"Pulsar-Based Navigation System to Get Test on Space Station - Space.com\">Pulsar-Based Navigation System to Get Test on Space Station - Space.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> An experiment thatarrived at the International Space Station today (June 5) will test a celestial navigational system that one day may guide future spaceships to Jupiter as efficiently as GPS satellites get you to Starbucks. The Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology (SEXTANT) experiment is among the projects planned for the world's first telescope dedicated to observing neutron stars, the densest known objects in the universe. Neutron stars form when a star roughly one to three times the mass of the sun runs out of fuel for nuclear fusion and collapses, crushing every proton and electron in its core <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/transhuman-news-blog\/space-station\/pulsar-based-navigation-system-to-get-test-on-space-station-space-com\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-space-station"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}