According to IFLScience, NASA has utilized lasers to deliver data from beyond the Moon and back to our planet, which could enhance spacecraft communication.
The test took place on November 14 on the Psyche spacecraft that had been sent into space to explore an asteroid, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) stated.
One of the remarkable things is that the spacecraft makes use of DSOC, the agency's first demonstration of optical communications beyond the Earth-Moon system.
It has a flight laser transceiver, a ground laser transmitter, and a ground laser receiver for data transmission.
The demonstration achieved 'first light' by locking onto a powerful uplink laser beacon from JPL's Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory.
The uplink beacon assisted the transceiver in directing its downlink laser to the Hale Telescope at Caltech's Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, which is approximately 10 million miles away - 40 times the distance between Earth and the Moon.
According to Trudy Kortes, director of Technology Demonstrations at NASA Headquarters in Washington, this is a significant scientific advance.
“Achieving first light is one of many critical DSOC milestones in the coming months, paving the way toward higher-data-rate communications capable of sending scientific information, high-definition imagery, and streaming video in support of humanity’s next giant leap: sending humans to Mars,” she said in a statement.
Meera Srinivasan, operations lead for DSOC shared that they successfully integrated ground assets and flight transceiver in a Tuesday morning test, requiring the Psyche operations teams to work together. Despite the formidable challenge, the team successfully transmitted, received, and decoded some data.
Although optical communications have been conducted from Earth's orbit before, this is the furthest distance that laser beams have traveled.
The longer the distance optical communications must travel, the more difficult it becomes since more precision is required; yet, this is a game changer for space exploration communication.
