Cold Atom Lab: Five Years of Quantum Science on the International Space Station*

We present results from the first five operational years of NASA’s Cold Atom Lab (CAL), a versatile multi-user research facility designed to utilize the microgravity environment of the International Space Station to study quantum matter and to serve as a pathfinder for maturing quantum technologies in space. Scientific accomplishments by the original five flight research teams will be highlighted along with near-term plans for enhanced capabilities and research opportunities with CAL to prepare and study quantum gases and mixtures of rubidium-87, potassium-39, and potassium-41at sub-nanokelvin temperatures. We will further report on recently established capabilities for dual-species matter-wave interferometry in space. The impact from this work, and potential for follow-on studies, will be reviewed in the context of future space-based fundamental physics missions.

This research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.