‘Deep space’ laser message captured by NASA from 10 million miles away

An experiment that could change the way spacecraft communicate I was able to send data using a laser To and from distance approx 10 million miles awayabout 40 times farther than the Moon is from Earth.

NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment sent out a near-infrared laser encoded with test data from the satellite. Psyche spacecraft to the Hale telescopeIt is located at the Palomar Observatory of the California Institute of Technology in San Diego, California.

According to NASA in a statement released this week, that is The farthest demonstration ever Via optical communications

DSOC is scheduled to send high-bandwidth test data back to Earth during the two-year technology demonstration The soul travels to the asteroid belt The main one is between Mars and Jupiter.

The person responsible for managing both DSOC and the Psyche spacecraft is NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, located in Southern California.

According to the scientists in charge of the mission, the technical demonstration took place in the early hours of November 14, after an instrument known as the Psyche’s aeronautical laser transceiver, which can send and receive near-infrared signals, was installed on the cockpit. A powerful laser beacon located in California.

And to this alignment, with which they refined their orientations, between the transmitter and receiver and the ground stations, scientists They know it as “first light.”

“Getting first light is one of many critical milestones for DSOC in the coming months,” said Trudy Curtis, technology demonstration manager for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

Curtis stated that this achievement “paved the way towards communications with higher data speeds capable of sending scientific information.” High definition images and video streaming To support humanity’s next great leap: sending humans to Mars.

DSOC experiment officials have confirmed that no data has been transferred from the Psyche mission, and that although they work in close collaboration with the mission support team, DSOC operations seek not to interfere with those of the spacecraft.

“Tuesday morning’s test was the first to fully integrate ground assets and the flight transponder, requiring the DSOC and Psyche operations teams to work together,” said Meera Srinivasan, DSOC operations lead at JPL.

He added: “It was a huge challenge and we had a lot of work to do, but for a short time we were able to send, receive and decode some data.”

With a successful first light, the DSOC team will now work to improve the systems that control the pointing of the downlink laser on the transceiver. Once the project is completed, it can begin its demonstration of maintaining high-bandwidth data transmission from the transceiver to Palomar at various distances from Earth.

The DSOC trial aims to prove this Data transfer speeds 10 to 100 times faster It is one of the most advanced radio frequency systems used by spacecraft today.

This will help future human and robotic exploration missions and support high-precision scientific instruments.