NASA’s New Horizons set the standards, Waters Xevo users benefit

NASA made history again recently as the spacecraft New Horizons successfully flew by Pluto, the last of the nine ‘classical’ planets, to gather valuable data about an area of our solar system that we know very little about.

The spacecraft managed to successfully gather the most detailed images of Pluto ever seen whilst hurtling past the surface at 14km/s (31,000mph). Gathering so much data at these speeds is almost incomprehensible; but Waters understands the importance of speed and clarity when gathering data as scientists are often faced with having to make a trade-off between high bandwidth data acquisition and data quality. This is why we have taken SpaceWire standards specified by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA and featured them in our Xevo TQ-S micro tandem quad mass spectrometer.

SpaceWire standards are used by the ESA and NASA to ensure fast and reliable communications to spacecraft. By incorporating SpaceWire technology into the Xevo TQ-S micro you can save time and money as it enables high speed data transmission resulting in easier transfer of methods between instruments of different analytical sensitivities. High sensitivity becomes more accessible and you no longer have to run multiple analyses because the wider dynamic range, enabled by the inclusion of SpaceWire technology, allows samples with very different analyte concentrations to be accurately quantified in the same sample analysis.

Find out more about SpaceWire in Xevo TQ-S micro

Find out more about the New Horizons Pluto Mission

Find out more about SpaceWire standards