#radio jupiter holiday special

[boththemanandthecold]

Goodnight, Night Vale, Goodnight.

I just graduated today! Here's my grad cap and my senior quote!

"Everywhere we humans go, we bring our world with us. There is no empty that is deep enough to swallow our life completely. When the last of us huddle in a dying world, one of us will tell a story, and another of us will laugh."

-Cecil Gershwin Palmer

[iamindifferenttolamp]

Why no f? Surely there's no way it could be a mistake, so what's the reason why?

[vilevilescorpio]

Everywhere we humans go, we bring our world with us. There is no empty that is deep enough to swallow our life completely. When the last of us huddle in a dying world, one of us will tell a story, and another of us will laugh. And now the weather.

Episode 220 - A Radio Jupiter Holiday Special 

[angeloftheeasterngate]

Everywhere we humans go, we bring our world with us. There is no empty that is deep enough to swallow our life completely. When the last of us huddle in a dying world, one of us will tell a story, and another of us will laugh.

Cecil Gershwin Palmer, Welcome to Night Vale, episode 220: A Radio Jupiter Holiday Special

[screamingsilentlyintothevoid]

We are a story telling species. Other animals use tools. Other animals communicate. Every division we try to throw up to separate ourselves from our animal kindred gets knocked down, except this. Human beings have an insatiable drive to organize the world into narrative, both real and unreal. We are the only species to tell harmless lies that our audience knows are lies, in order to delight and inspire. What a heavy burden the truth. What a light gift a fabulation. A lie is a thing with feathers.

Cecil G Palmer, ep. 220 - A Radio Jupiter Holiday Special

[mint-lix]

6 minutes into the wtnv A Radio Jupiter Holiday Special and i think the girl from space radio and the girl from secret location that broadcasts numbers should hold hands over their radios they could be long distance gfs

[asydicsydney]

1 year anniversary of A Radio Jupiter Holiday Special. Everyone look at my space girl

[ricearicema]

WTNV LIVEBLOG

Vague and rabid as usual

Episode 220: Radio Jupiter Holiday Special 📻

Hehe nice intro

Ooh space holiday celebrations fascinating

The way that radio Jupiter speaks reminds me of Universe City 🌃

The quote about pretending time is passing is hitting for some reason

The season of cuddling :)

The cadence of “I will huddle with me” paralleling “come huddle with us” is so good

Manchingian. Manchigan. Mitcheloon.

Stocks: be lucky or cheat 💀

The wordle reference be hitting. And sourdough? Finknor really on a quarantine flashback

We love corporate espionage and manipulation

The snarky anticapitalism of Nightvale makes me smile

I can just imagine finknor getting so pissed off at the government and economy and sitting down and writing this passive aggressive stock tip segment

The dreaminess of Jupiters voice is just so ✨✨🪐📻

Love the creativity Jupiter

Oo a sculpture

Bro spooky space shit be happening

Radio Cecil

Love the speed round horoscopes

Ooh I’m a

~definitely~

Just stop looking at the thing you are not seeing! So simple, why didn’t I think of this before!

“No one knows anything” this show is so relatable

Spooky statue shit oo

Being beyond time and space is so funky

The desperation to meet someone is so emotional bro

The weather is cold and blue and distant like space

The alphabetical poetry is cool

Only stories make us human and that is beautiful

A lie is a thing with feathers 🪶

I think Radio Jupiter and Radio Silence would be friends

“The stars she sees now have human faces behind them” 🌃✨❤️

[blackboard-monitor]

“There are many ways to be sucessful at stocks. For instance, you can be lucky, or you can cheat. Those are the two ways.”

Welcome to Night Vale, Episode 220: A Radio Jupiter Holiday Special

[loverboybrightsideghost]

:0 a radio jupiter holiday special???

[brookston]

Holidays 4.13

Holidays

Aerosmith Day (Massachusetts)

American Elephant Day

Auslan Day (Australia)

Beauty Peace Day

Celebrate Teen Literature Day

Day of the Dead (Elder Scrolls)

Environmental Protection Day

Feast of Rotten Endings

413 Day (Arkansas)

Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) International Awareness Day

Homestuck Day

Huguenot Day (France)

Ides of April (Ancient Rome)

International Campus & Community Day

International Creativity & Innovation Day

International Day of the Kiss

International Functional Neurological Disorder Awareness Day

International Imposter Syndrome Awareness Day

International Jaat Day (India)

International Plant Appreciation Day

International Rock & Roll Day

International Special Librarian’s Day

John Hanson Day (Maryland)

Katyn Memorial Day (Poland)

National Boot Day

National Borinqueneers Day

National Hippy Day

National Japanese Spitz Day

National Kiss Your Homies Day

National PhiliShui Day

National Silly Earring Day

National Sticker Day

National Theresa Day

Neil Banging Out the Tunes Day

Scrabble Day

Silent Spring Day

Sinhala & Tamil New Year’s Eve (Sri Lanka)

Songkran (Thailand) [thru 4.15] (a.k.a. …

Bangla New Year

Bisket Jatra (Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand)

Chiang Mai Songkran

Tamil New Year

Thai New Year

Sterile Packaging Day

Swiftie Day

Teacher’s Day (Ecuador)

Thomas Jefferson Day

Unfairly Prosecuted Persons Day (Slovakia)

Western Mass Day (Massachusetts)

World Microscope Day

World Sarcoidosis Day

World’s Day of Remembrance for Victims of Katyn Massacre

Food & Drink Celebrations

Day to Give Thanks for Fish and Seafood

National Make Lunch Count Day

National Peach Cobbler Day

2nd Thursday in April

Global Remanufacturing Day [2nd Thursday]

World Civility Day [2nd Thursday]

Independence Days

Adammia (Declared; 2013) [unrecognized]

Mensa Ann (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

Varnland (Declared; 1991) [unrecognized]

Winterspell (Declared; 2017) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Alfarbot: Alfheim Day (Pagan)

Believe in Fairies Day (Pastafarian)

Bill Hicks Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Caradoc (Christian; Saint)

Elizablecccch Arden (Muppetism)

Festival of Jupiter Victor (Ancient Rome)

Festival of Libertas (Ancient Roman personification of freedom and political liberty)

Guinoch of Scotland (Christian; Saint)

Hermenegild (Christian; Saint)

Ida of Louvain (Christian; Saint)

James Ensor (Artology)

Libertas (Old Roman Goddess of Liberty)

Martin I, Pope (Christian; Saint)

Poshui Jie begins (Water Splashing Festival; China)

Ptolemy (Positivist; Saint)

Thomas Lawrence (Artology)

Vaisakhi (Sikh spring grain harvest festival)

Vishnu (Pondicherry, India; Hindu)

Yayoi Matsuri (Nikko, Japan; 5-Day Spring Festival)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Prime Number Day: 103 [27 of 72]

Shakku (赤口 Japan) [Bad luck all day, except at noon.]

Premieres

Aladdin Sane, by David Bowie (Album; 1973)

Bedeviled Rabbit (WB Cartoon; 1957)

The Big Bad Wolf (Disney Cartoon; 1934)

Black Rose, by Thin Lizzy (Album; 1979)

Bridget Jones’s Diary (Film; 2001)

Brown Sugar, by The Rolling Stones (Song; 1971)

Bulldog Drummond (Radio Series; 1941)

Casino Royale, by Ian Fleming (Novel; 1953) [James Bond #1]

Catch a Fire, by Bob Marley (Album; 1973)

Critic’s Choice (Film; 1963)

Daltrey, by Roger Daltrey (Album; 1973)

Echo, by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (Album; 1999)

Messiah, by George Frederic Handel (Oratorio; 1742)

Mickey’s Kangaroo (Disney Cartoon; 1935)

The One Minute Manager, by Kennth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson (Book; 1983)

Rampage (Film; 2018)

Rising Sun, by Michael Crichton (Novel; 1992)

Safe at Home! (Film; 1962)

Swing Shift (Film; 1984)

Tango in the Night, by Fleetwood Mac (Album; 1987)

12 Angry Men (Film; 1957)

Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand (Historic Novel; 2012)

Today’s Name Days

Hermenegild, Ida, Martin (Austria)

Ida, Martin (Croatia)

Aleš (Czech Republic)

Justinus (Denmark)

Tarvi, Tarvo (Estonia)

Tellervo (Finland)

Ida (France)

Hermenegil, Ida, Gilda, Martin (Germany)

Gerontios (Greece)

Ida (Hungary)

Ermenegildo, Martino (Italy)

Egils, Jagailis, Justins, Justs, Nauris (Latvia)

Algaudė, Ida, Mingaudas (Lithuania)

Asta, Astrid (Norway)

Hermenegild, Hermenegilda, Ida, Jan, Justyn, Małgorzata, Przemysł, Przemysław (Poland)

Artemon (Romania)

Aleš (Slovakia)

Hermenegildo, Martín (Spain)

Artur, Douglas (Sweden)

Slavka, Yaroslava (Ukraine)

Thom, Thomas, Thomasina, Thompson, Tom, Tomas, Tommie, Tommy, Twain (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 103 of 2024; 262 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of week 15 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Fearn (Alder) [Day 26 of 28]

Chinese: Second Month 2 (Gui-Mao), Day 23 (Xin-Chou)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 22 Nisan 5783

Islamic: 22 Ramadan 1444

J Cal: 12 Aqua; Fiveday [12 of 30]

Julian: 31 March 2023

Moon: 46%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 19 Archimedes (4th Month) [Ptolemy]

Runic Half Month: Man (Human Being) [Day 4 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 25 of 90)

Zodiac: Aries (Day 24 of 30)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 4.13

Holidays

Aerosmith Day (Massachusetts)

American Elephant Day

Auslan Day (Australia)

Beauty Peace Day

Celebrate Teen Literature Day

Day of the Dead (Elder Scrolls)

Environmental Protection Day

Feast of Rotten Endings

413 Day (Arkansas)

Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) International Awareness Day

Homestuck Day

Huguenot Day (France)

Ides of April (Ancient Rome)

International Campus & Community Day

International Creativity & Innovation Day

International Day of the Kiss

International Functional Neurological Disorder Awareness Day

International Imposter Syndrome Awareness Day

International Jaat Day (India)

International Plant Appreciation Day

International Rock & Roll Day

International Special Librarian’s Day

John Hanson Day (Maryland)

Katyn Memorial Day (Poland)

National Boot Day

National Borinqueneers Day

National Hippy Day

National Japanese Spitz Day

National Kiss Your Homies Day

National PhiliShui Day

National Silly Earring Day

National Sticker Day

National Theresa Day

Neil Banging Out the Tunes Day

Scrabble Day

Silent Spring Day

Sinhala & Tamil New Year’s Eve (Sri Lanka)

Songkran (Thailand) [thru 4.15] (a.k.a. …

Bangla New Year

Bisket Jatra (Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand)

Chiang Mai Songkran

Tamil New Year

Thai New Year

Sterile Packaging Day

Swiftie Day

Teacher’s Day (Ecuador)

Thomas Jefferson Day

Unfairly Prosecuted Persons Day (Slovakia)

Western Mass Day (Massachusetts)

World Microscope Day

World Sarcoidosis Day

World’s Day of Remembrance for Victims of Katyn Massacre

Food & Drink Celebrations

Day to Give Thanks for Fish and Seafood

National Make Lunch Count Day

National Peach Cobbler Day

2nd Thursday in April

Global Remanufacturing Day [2nd Thursday]

World Civility Day [2nd Thursday]

Independence Days

Adammia (Declared; 2013) [unrecognized]

Mensa Ann (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

Varnland (Declared; 1991) [unrecognized]

Winterspell (Declared; 2017) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Alfarbot: Alfheim Day (Pagan)

Believe in Fairies Day (Pastafarian)

Bill Hicks Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Caradoc (Christian; Saint)

Elizablecccch Arden (Muppetism)

Festival of Jupiter Victor (Ancient Rome)

Festival of Libertas (Ancient Roman personification of freedom and political liberty)

Guinoch of Scotland (Christian; Saint)

Hermenegild (Christian; Saint)

Ida of Louvain (Christian; Saint)

James Ensor (Artology)

Libertas (Old Roman Goddess of Liberty)

Martin I, Pope (Christian; Saint)

Poshui Jie begins (Water Splashing Festival; China)

Ptolemy (Positivist; Saint)

Thomas Lawrence (Artology)

Vaisakhi (Sikh spring grain harvest festival)

Vishnu (Pondicherry, India; Hindu)

Yayoi Matsuri (Nikko, Japan; 5-Day Spring Festival)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Prime Number Day: 103 [27 of 72]

Shakku (赤口 Japan) [Bad luck all day, except at noon.]

Premieres

Aladdin Sane, by David Bowie (Album; 1973)

Bedeviled Rabbit (WB Cartoon; 1957)

The Big Bad Wolf (Disney Cartoon; 1934)

Black Rose, by Thin Lizzy (Album; 1979)

Bridget Jones’s Diary (Film; 2001)

Brown Sugar, by The Rolling Stones (Song; 1971)

Bulldog Drummond (Radio Series; 1941)

Casino Royale, by Ian Fleming (Novel; 1953) [James Bond #1]

Catch a Fire, by Bob Marley (Album; 1973)

Critic’s Choice (Film; 1963)

Daltrey, by Roger Daltrey (Album; 1973)

Echo, by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (Album; 1999)

Messiah, by George Frederic Handel (Oratorio; 1742)

Mickey’s Kangaroo (Disney Cartoon; 1935)

The One Minute Manager, by Kennth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson (Book; 1983)

Rampage (Film; 2018)

Rising Sun, by Michael Crichton (Novel; 1992)

Safe at Home! (Film; 1962)

Swing Shift (Film; 1984)

Tango in the Night, by Fleetwood Mac (Album; 1987)

12 Angry Men (Film; 1957)

Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand (Historic Novel; 2012)

Today’s Name Days

Hermenegild, Ida, Martin (Austria)

Ida, Martin (Croatia)

Aleš (Czech Republic)

Justinus (Denmark)

Tarvi, Tarvo (Estonia)

Tellervo (Finland)

Ida (France)

Hermenegil, Ida, Gilda, Martin (Germany)

Gerontios (Greece)

Ida (Hungary)

Ermenegildo, Martino (Italy)

Egils, Jagailis, Justins, Justs, Nauris (Latvia)

Algaudė, Ida, Mingaudas (Lithuania)

Asta, Astrid (Norway)

Hermenegild, Hermenegilda, Ida, Jan, Justyn, Małgorzata, Przemysł, Przemysław (Poland)

Artemon (Romania)

Aleš (Slovakia)

Hermenegildo, Martín (Spain)

Artur, Douglas (Sweden)

Slavka, Yaroslava (Ukraine)

Thom, Thomas, Thomasina, Thompson, Tom, Tomas, Tommie, Tommy, Twain (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 103 of 2024; 262 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of week 15 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Fearn (Alder) [Day 26 of 28]

Chinese: Second Month 2 (Gui-Mao), Day 23 (Xin-Chou)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 22 Nisan 5783

Islamic: 22 Ramadan 1444

J Cal: 12 Aqua; Fiveday [12 of 30]

Julian: 31 March 2023

Moon: 46%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 19 Archimedes (4th Month) [Ptolemy]

Runic Half Month: Man (Human Being) [Day 4 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 25 of 90)

Zodiac: Aries (Day 24 of 30)

[dorothy-leonardi-sisco]

220 - A Radio Jupiter Holiday Special

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

New SpaceTime out Friday: SpaceTime 20220429 Series 25 Episode 51 Solar storm triggers radio blackouts in Australia A severe X1.1 class solar flare erupting from the surface of the Sun has caused strong shortwave radio blackouts across Australia, the Western Pacific and eastern Asia over the Easter holidays. Linking the cosmic web with stellar formation Astronomers have identified cold streams of star forming gas flowing into galaxies from the intergalactic medium. Why Jupiter’s moon Io has such splendid dunes Scientists have long wondered how Jupiter’s volcanic moon, Io, has meandering ridges as grand as any that can be seen in movies like “Dune.” The Science Report Grim warnings that bees are at risk of decline due to climate change. A new study has found that kids with prolonged COVID-19 symptoms likely to be less active. Half the world’s population affected by a headache disorder every year, Skeptic's guide to the love frequency. SpaceTime covers the latest news in astronomy & space sciences. The show is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts (itunes), Stitcher, Google Podcast, Pocketcasts, SoundCloud, Bitez.com, YouTube, your favourite podcast download provider, and from www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com SpaceTime is also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio. SpaceTime daily news blog: http://spacetimewithstuartgary.tumblr.com/ SpaceTime facebook: www.facebook.com/spacetimewithstuartgary SpaceTime Instagram @spacetimewithstuartgary SpaceTime twitter feed @stuartgary SpaceTime YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SpaceTimewithStuartGary SpaceTime -- A brief history SpaceTime is Australia’s most respected astronomy and space science news program – averaging some three million downloads globally every year. The show reports on the latest stories and discoveries making news in astronomy, space flight, and science. SpaceTime features weekly interviews with leading Australian scientists about their research. The show began life in 1995 as ‘StarStuff’ on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) NewsRadio network. Award winning investigative reporter Stuart Gary created the program during more than fifteen years as NewsRadio’s evening anchor and Science Editor. Gary’s always loved science. He studied astronomy at university and was invited to undertake a PHD in astrophysics, but instead focused on his career in journalism and radio broadcasting. He worked as an announcer and music DJ in commercial radio before becoming a journalist and eventually joining ABC News. He wrote, produced and hosted StarStuff from its inception, consistently achieving 9 per cent of the national Australian radio audience based on the ABC’s Neilsen ratings survey figures for the five major Australian metro markets: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. The StarStuff podcast was published on line by ABC Science -- achieving over 1.3 million downloads annually. However, after some 20 years, the show finally wrapped up in December 2015 following ABC funding cuts, and a redirection of available finances to increase sports and horse racing coverage. Rather than continue with the ABC, Gary resigned so that he could keep the show going independently. StarStuff was rebranded as “SpaceTime”, with the first episode being broadcast in February 2016. Over the years, SpaceTime has grown, tripling its former ABC audience numbers and expanding to include new segments such as the Science Report -- which provides a wrap of general science news, weekly skeptical science features, special reports looking at the latest computer and technology news, and Skywatch – which provides a monthly guide to the night skies. The show is now published three times a week and is also available from the United States National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio, and through both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

[scifigeneration]

NASA Team First to Demonstrate X-ray Navigation in Space

In a technology first, a team of NASA engineers has demonstrated fully autonomous X-ray navigation in space -- a capability that could revolutionize NASA's ability in the future to pilot robotic spacecraft to the far reaches of the solar system and beyond.

The demonstration, which the team carried out with an experiment called Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology, or SEXTANT, showed that millisecond pulsars could be used to accurately determine the location of an object moving at thousands of miles per hour in space -- similar to how the Global Positioning System, widely known as GPS, provides positioning, navigation, and timing services to users on Earth with its constellation of 24 operating satellites.

"This demonstration is a breakthrough for future deep space exploration," said SEXTANT Project Manager Jason Mitchell, an aerospace technologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "As the first to demonstrate X-ray navigation fully autonomously and in real-time in space, we are now leading the way."

This technology provides a new option for deep space navigation that could work in concert with existing spacecraft-based radio and optical systems.

Although it could take a few years to mature an X-ray navigation system practical for use on deep-space spacecraft, the fact that NASA engineers proved it could be done bodes well for future interplanetary space travel. Such a system provides a new option for spacecraft to autonomously determine their locations outside the currently used Earth-based global navigation networks because pulsars are accessible in virtually every conceivable fight regime, from low-Earth to deepest space.

Exploiting NICER Telescopes

The SEXTANT technology demonstration, which NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate had funded under its Game Changing Program, took advantage of the 52 X-ray telescopes and silicon-drift detectors that make up NASA's Neutron-star Interior Composition Explorer, or NICER. Since its successful deployment as an external attached payload on the International Space Station in June, it has trained its optics on some of the most unusual objects in the universe.

"We're doing very cool science and using the space station as a platform to execute that science, which in turn enables X-ray navigation," said Goddard's Keith Gendreau, the principal investigator for NICER, who presented the findings Thursday, Jan. 11, at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington. "The technology will help humanity navigate and explore the galaxy."

NICER, an observatory about the size of a washing machine, currently is studying neutron stars and their rapidly pulsating cohort, called pulsars. Although these stellar oddities emit radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, observing in the X-ray band offers the greatest insights into these unusual, incredibly dense celestial objects, which, if compressed any further, would collapse completely into black holes. Just one teaspoonful of neutron star matter would weigh a billion tons on Earth.

Although NICER is studying all types of neutron stars, the SEXTANT experiment is focused on observations of pulsars. Radiation emanating from their powerful magnetic fields is swept around much like a lighthouse. The narrow beams are seen as flashes of light when they sweep across our line of sight. With these predictable pulsations, pulsars can provide high-precision timing information similar to the atomic-clock signals supplied through the GPS system.

Veteran's Day Demonstration

In the SEXTANT demonstration that occurred over the Veteran's Day holiday in 2017, the SEXTANT team selected four millisecond pulsar targets -- J0218+4232, B1821-24, J0030+0451, and J0437-4715 -- and directed NICER to orient itself so it could detect X-rays within their sweeping beams of light. The millisecond pulsars used by SEXTANT are so stable that their pulse arrival times can be predicted to accuracies of microseconds for years into the future.

During the two-day experiment, the payload generated 78 measurements to get timing data, which the SEXTANT experiment fed into its specially developed onboard algorithms to autonomously stitch together a navigational solution that revealed the location of NICER in its orbit around Earth as a space station payload. The team compared that solution against location data gathered by NICER's onboard GPS receiver.

"For the onboard measurements to be meaningful, we needed to develop a model that predicted the arrival times using ground-based observations provided by our collaborators at radio telescopes around the world," said Paul Ray, a SEXTANT co-investigator with the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory. "The difference between the measurement and the model prediction is what gives us our navigation information."

The goal was to demonstrate that the system could locate NICER within a 10-mile radius as the space station sped around Earth at slightly more than 17,500 mph. Within eight hours of starting the experiment on November 9, the system converged on a location within the targeted range of 10 miles and remained well below that threshold for the rest of the experiment, Mitchell said. In fact, "a good portion" of the data showed positions that were accurate to within three miles.

"This was much faster than the two weeks we allotted for the experiment," said SEXTANT System Architect Luke Winternitz, who works at Goddard. "We had indications that our system would work, but the weekend experiment finally demonstrated the system's ability to work autonomously."

Although the ubiquitously used GPS system is accurate to within a few feet for Earth-bound users, this level of accuracy is not necessary when navigating to the far reaches of the solar system where distances between objects measure in the millions of miles. "In deep space, we hope to reach accuracies in the hundreds of feet," Mitchell said.

Next Steps and the Future

Now that the team has demonstrated the system, Winternitz said the team will focus on updating and fine-tuning both flight and ground software in preparation for a second experiment later in 2018. The ultimate goal, which may take years to realize, would be to develop detectors and other hardware to make pulsar-based navigation readily available on future spacecraft. To advance the technology for operational use, teams will focus on reducing the size, weight, and power requirements and improving the sensitivity of the instruments. The SEXTANT team now also is discussing the possible application of X-ray navigation to support human spaceflight, Mitchell added.

If an interplanetary mission to the moons of Jupiter or Saturn were equipped with such a navigational device, for example, it would be able to calculate its location autonomously, for long periods of time without communicating with Earth.

Mitchell said that GPS is not an option for these far-flung missions because its signal weakens quickly as one travels beyond the GPS satellite network around Earth.

"This successful demonstration firmly establishes the viability of X-ray pulsar navigation as a new autonomous navigation capability. We have shown that a mature version of this technology could enhance deep-space exploration anywhere within the solar system and beyond," Mitchell said. "It is an awesome technology first."

NICER is an Astrophysics Mission of Opportunity within NASA's Explorers program, which provides frequent flight opportunities for world-class scientific investigations from space utilizing innovative, streamlined and efficient management approaches within the heliophysics and astrophysics science areas. NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate funds the SEXTANT component of the mission through its Game Changing Development Program.