Program Manager: Stefanie Tompkins,
Ph.D. (STO)
 Current military navigation systems use updates from Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to enhance the Inertial Navigation System's (INS's) knowledge of their current position. However, GPS transmission is vulnerable to jamming, and signal reception is difficult or impossible in certain geographic instances (underwater, in urban or natural canyons, underground, etc.). Without GPS updates, INS positional accuracy drifts with time at a rate of a few miles per hour (referred to as the drift rate of the navigation system).
The Precision Inertial Navigation Systems (PINS) program seeks to use ultra-cold atom interferometers as an alternative to GPS position updates. Advancements in atomic physics over the past two decades have allowed scientists exquisite control over the external quantum states of atoms, including the deliberate production of matter waves from ultra-cold atoms. This has allowed the development of matter wave interferometry techniques to measure forces acting on matter—including high-precision atomic accelerometers and gyroscopes. An inertial navigation system that used this technology would have unprecedented drift rates; however, many scientific and technical challenges remain. The PINS program will demonstrate a high-precision atom interferometer inertial navigation system on an aircraft by the year 2013, with a total system volume under 20 liters. As this is an entirely inertial system, it will require no transmissions to or by the platform—a jam-proof, non-emanating inertial navigation system with near-GPS accuracies for future military submarines, aircraft, and missiles.
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