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Description NASA astronaut Jessica Meir inspects optical fibers while installing hardware updates to the agency’s Cold Atom Lab, or CAL, aboard the International Space Station on May 8, 2026. About the size of a minifridge and operated from Earth, CAL…
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have switched on NASA’s newly upgraded Cold Atom Lab, a one-of-a-kind facility designed to improve how scientists explore the fundamental workings of matter and develop new quantum technologies. By leveraging the unique environment of…
NASA OUTSTANDING PUBLIC LEADERSHIP MEDAL Awarded for notable leadership accomplishments that have significantly influenced NASA’s mission. Sustained leadership and exceptionally high-impact leadership achievements demonstrate the individual’s effectiveness in advancing NASA’s goals and image in present and future terms. Kamal Oudrhiri…
Future space missions could use quantum technologies to help us understand the physical laws that govern the universe, explore the composition of other planets and their moons, gain insights into unexplained cosmological phenomena, or monitor ice sheet thickness and the…
Future space missions could use quantum technology to track water on Earth, explore the composition of moons and other planets, or probe mysterious cosmic phenomena. NASA’s Cold Atom Lab, a first-of-its-kind facility aboard the International Space Station, has taken another…
The following abstract was published in Nature 623, 502–508 (2023). The full paper can be read here: Elliott, E.R., Aveline, D.C., Bigelow, N.P. et al. Quantum gas mixtures and dual-species atom interferometry in space. Nature 623, 502–508 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06645-w The capability to reach ultracold atomic temperatures in compact instruments…
The remotely operated facility aboard the International Space Station has created another tool that researchers can use to probe the fundamental nature of the world around us. For the first time in space, scientists have produced a quantum gas containing…
PROJECT Cold Atom Lab (CAL) SNAPSHOT Two species of quantum gases have been created to coexist and interact for the first time in space. Accessing resonant interactions among these gases will allow scientists to explore few-body physics, quantum chemistry, and…
The agency’s Cold Atom Lab is getting its second major upgrade and will be using it to explore the quantum realm.
A Cold Atom Laboratory Science Workshop was held in in Bremen Germany to discuss and future collaboration with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Atomic Physics and Molecular Optic Research Community worldwide.