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how do we navigate through space

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currently spacecraft flying beyond earth

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don't have a gps to find their way

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through space navigators on earth send a

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signal to the spacecraft which receives

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it and sends it back

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extremely precise clocks on the ground

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called atomic clocks measure how long it

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takes the signal to make this two-way

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journey

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the amount of time tells them how far

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away the spacecraft is and how fast it's

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going

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the farther out in space the spacecraft

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is the longer it takes to receive and

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send a signal

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but what if humans are sent to another

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planet like mars

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a two-way system that sends a signal

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from earth to a spacecraft back to earth

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and then to the spacecraft again would

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take an average of 40 minutes

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imagine if the gps on your phone took 40

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minutes to calculate your position you

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might miss your turn or be several exits

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down the highway before it caught up

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with you

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if humans travel to the red planet it

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would be better if the system was one

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way allowing the explorers to

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immediately determine their current

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position rather than waiting for that

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information to come back from earth

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nasa is testing new technology that

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would allow future explorers to do just

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that the deep space atomic clock is the

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first demonstration of an atomic clock

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that can be used for navigation in deep

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space

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its own trajectory instead of depending

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on earth if a spacecraft had one of

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these clocks on board it could receive a

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signal from one of those big antennas on

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earth and quickly measure its speed and

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position the deep space atomic clock

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could one day let astronauts navigate

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safely and accurately to mars and beyond

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this technology demonstration is the