CAL Stories
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NASA Demonstrates ‘Ultra-Cool’ Quantum Sensor for First Time in Space
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…
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NASA’s Cold Atom Lab Sets Stage for Quantum Chemistry in Space
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…
![Cold Atom Lab flight instrument](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/cold-atom-lab-highlight.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
Coexisting quantum gases in Earth’s orbit
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…
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NASA’s Space-Based Quantum Science Lab Keeps Getting Better
The agency’s Cold Atom Lab is getting its second major upgrade and will be using it to explore the quantum realm.
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Ultracold Bubbles on Space Station Open New Paths for Quantum Research
Produced inside NASA’s Cold Atom Lab, the bubbles provide new opportunities to experiment with an exotic state of matter. Since the days of NASA’s Apollo program, astronauts have documented (and contended with) how liquids behave differently in microgravity than they…
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Upgrading the Space Station’s Cold Atom Lab With Mixed Reality
NASA is looking into whether mixed reality technology could help with repairs and upgrades on the cutting-edge Cold Atom Lab aboard the space station. NASA’s Cold Atom Lab is a first-of-its-kind physics laboratory operating in Earth orbit. About the size…
![View of the atom interferometry-capable Science Module inside two layers of magnetic shields during the pre-launch build/testing phase at JPL.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/quantum_technologies_2.png?w=4096&format=png)
Quantum Technologies Take Flight
PROJECT Cold Atom Lab (CAL) SNAPSHOT Interferometry of atomic matter-waves has been demonstrated for the first time in orbit, opening the door for precision quantum sensing for both fundamental and applied physics applications ranging from tests of general relativity to…