KIRUNA, Sweden - Technology has to be small, light, and thoroughly tested if scientists are to conduct research with it on the International Space Station ISS. However, some experiments are so complex that miniaturization is a major challenge. These include experiments with so-called Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs), in which ultracold atoms 'vibrate in unison' in what's called a matter wave. To further advance this field, the Matter-Wave Interferometry in Microgravity (Materiewellen Interferometrie unter Schwerelosigkeit; MAIUS 2) experiment was launched on 2 November 2023 at 8:30 CET, aboard a sounding rocket that lifted off from the Esrange Space Center near Kiruna in northern Sweden. During the almost six-minute period of microgravity, German researchers succeeded for the first time in producing two mixtures of BECs simultaneously during a high-altitude rocket flight, studying their behavior under conditions not possible in ground-based observatories, DLR reports. Continue reading original article.
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
20 December 2023 -"MAIUS-2 is the most complex experiment we have ever carried out on a sounding rocket. We were able to prove that the increasingly miniaturized technology works in principle in space," explains Rebekka Grellmann, MAIUS project manager at the German Space Agency at DLR. During the flight, the generation of rubidium Bose-Einstein condensates was demonstrated and their behavior in free fall was investigated. The researchers were also able to examine the generation and behavior of cold 'atomic clouds' during the rocket's burn time. However, the Bose-Einstein condensate of potassium atoms did not form as planned. "But we have already learned a lot from the mixtures generated on the ground," continues Grellmann. "NASA is already conducting research with its Cold Atom Lab on the ISS. In the future, however, an improved laboratory will be installed there to enhance research into ultracold and condensed mixtures and contribute to the development of future quantum sensors, for example with in-depth research on ultracold and condensed atoms. The results of the MAIUS flight and from the laboratory are now being closely examined so that this US-German atomic laboratory – the Bose Einstein Condensate and Cold Atom Laboratory (BECCAL) – can be further advanced."
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Jamie Whitney, Senior Editor
Military + Aerospace Electronics
