The Primary Atomic Reference Clock in Space or PARCS is an atomic-clock mission once scheduled to fly on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2008, but cancelled to make way for the Vision for Space Exploration. The mission, to have been funded by NASA, involved a laser-cooled caesium atomic clock, and a time-transfer system using Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites. PARCS was to fly concurrently with the Superconducting Microwave Oscillator (SUMO) a different sort of clock that will be compared against the PARCS clock to test certain theory. The objectives of the mission were to have been:
- Test gravitational theory
- Study laser-cooled atoms in microgravity
- Improve the accuracy of timekeeping on earth
Read more about Primary Atomic Reference Clock In Space: Experiment Location, Goals, Institutions and People, Staff
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