ScienceDaily (Nov. 11, 2002) — Phoning home from 93 billion miles away--only E.T. and other science fiction characters can do that. But with the help of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) know-how, reality soon may catch up with imagination.

Conceptual designs for a "realistic interstellar explorer," or RISE--a highly autonomous craft that would travel far beyond this solar system to collect scientific data--call for a laser-based communications link to Earth that relies in part on a recent NIST invention called a Parallel Cantilever Bi-axial Micro-Positioner. The prototype NIST device acts as a mechanical filter that generates very straight lines by screening out all other motions. Primarily intended for use in the delicate assembly and alignment of optoelectronic devices and applications in micro- and nano-manufacturing, the micro-positioner in a different application offers a promising means for meeting the demanding range, mass and power requirements for the RISE.

In its interstellar role, the micro-positioner would be used to position a lens that steers a laser beam communication link toward Earth. The beam must be pointed precisely because the distances would be, well, astronomical. The RISE is envisioned as having a range up to 1,000 Astronomical Units (AU)--1,000 times the distance from the Earth to the sun, or 93 billion miles.

A recent paper by researchers at NIST and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (which is designing the RISE) concluded that an optical communications downlink spanning 1,000 AU is technically feasible in the next decade if these new technologies can be sufficiently refined. For example, the current range of the NIST micro-positioner would have to be improved by a factor of nearly 10.

Related Stories

Scaling Friction Down To The Nano/Micro Realm (May 26, 2004) — An improved method for correcting nano- and micro-scale friction measurements has been developed by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology ...  > read more

Developing Elevators That Function During Fires (Oct. 24, 2003) — In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, U.S. fire experts are beginning to advocate the use of elevators in high-rise buildings throughout a fire, both to carry firefighters to the ...  > read more

NIST Atomic Fountain Clock Gets Much Better With Time (Sep. 26, 2005) — The world's best clock, NIST-F1, has been improved over the past few years and now measures time and frequency more than twice as accurately as it did in 1999 when first used as a national standard, ...  > read more

NIST Gears Up To Verify Short Range 3-D Imaging (Apr. 29, 2006) — Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently established an indoor, artifact-based facility to create new test protocols and performance measures to evaluate 3-D ...  > read more

Search ScienceDaily

Voting Machines: Make Your Vote Count!