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Plasma-ramming device is literally a speedometer for spacecraft
Given the fact that satellites orbit amongst one another at thousands of miles per hour, it's vitally important to know exactly how fast they're going, in order to avoid collisions. A new device offers an improved way of doing so, and it's appropriately named the Spacecraft Speedometer.
Ordinarily, satellite speed is gauged either by ground-based tracking stations using technologies such as radar and field of view sensors, or by GPS modules onboard the spacecraft themselves. Additionally, GPS readings can be hampered by space weather events like geomagnetic storms, which is ironically one of the times when satellite positioning information is needed most. Developed by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the United States Air Force Academy, the small satellite-mounted device incorporates two identical laminated plasma spectrometers.
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