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[music] Coming soon to the

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International Space Station,

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a multipurpose mission leveraging

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X-ray technology to uncover

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mysteries of the universe.

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It's

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nearly impossible to measure the

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sizes of neutron stars directly.

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They're only about the size of a city

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and very far away.

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They're very interesting in the sky to

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to study.

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It's matter at the cusp of

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becoming a black hole.

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NICER's 56 telescopes will

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make observations, enabling scientists

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to determine how rotating neutron

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stars - also called

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pulsars - are put together.

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What we're really interested in doing with NICER

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is understanding - um -

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really what the size of a neutron

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star is. Cause once we know the size of the

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radius of a neutron star very precisely,

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then we can put constraints on

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the density at the core.

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And once you have an idea of what the density is

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at the core you can constrain nuclear theories that

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describe how the particles at

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the core of neutron stars interact with each other.

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In addition to

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probing neutron stars, the

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two-in-one mission will advance GPS like

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navigation of spacecraft

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throughout the solar system and beyond.

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The embedded Station

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Explorer for X-ray Timing and

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Navigation Technology, or SEXTANT,

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uses NICER's observations

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of pulsars to demonstrate this

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potentially game-changing technology.

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It's goal as a technology demonstration

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as part of the NICER mission,

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is to try to turn the "G" in GPS

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into "Galactic."

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We want to use pulsars - this particular

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type of neutron star that spins

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hundreds of times a second that emits this

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atomic-like clock signal for us

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to receive. And so we observe

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multiple pulsars and stitch together a solution

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by looking at those precision timing

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signals from those pulsars to construct a

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spacecraft orbit determination solution.

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Both NICER and SEXTANT

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benefit existing and future NASA

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missions and will further

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expand humankind's understanding and

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exploration of the universe.

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nasa.gov/nicer