A signal from a spacecraft 10 million miles away has been received by NASA. The message, delivered by a distant laser, could “transform” communications with spacecraft, according to the space agency.
It is the result of a successful test of NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment. It is also the first time that data has been successfully relayed through a laser from a distance greater than 40 times that of the Moon’s surface, indicating a rapid increase.
Almost all communications with deep-space craft are currently accomplished via radio signals sent and received from massive antennas on Earth. They have proven to be dependable, but their bandwidth is limited, making it difficult or impossible to send large files like high-resolution photos and videos.
NASA’s work on DSOC is an attempt to replace radio communications with optical communications via lasers. According to the space agency, the technology could increase data rates by up to 100 times.
NASA’s Psyche mission, which left Earth last month on a mission to study a distant asteroid, was the first attempt to test the technology beyond the Moon. The spacecraft carries a laser transceiver that can send and receive near-infrared laser signal.
That equipment locked onto a NASA laser beacon in California last week. According to NASA, the “first light” achievement is part of a series of experiments designed to demonstrate the viability of laser technology.
“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,” said Trudy Kortes, director of technology demonstrations for the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
NASA achieves precision laser communication with distant spacecraft
The precision pointing of the laser signal is like trying to point a light at a coin from a mile away, according to NASA. Furthermore, both the laser and its target are constantly moving: in the 20 minutes it takes the light to travel to Earth from Psyche’s farthest distance, both the planet and the spacecraft will have moved significantly.
The team will now work to improve the systems that ensure the spacecraft’s lasers are pointing in the right direction. When that happens, NASA will conduct an experiment to show that the spacecraft can maintain high-bandwidth data transfer at various distances from Earth.
It will accomplish this by dividing the data into bits that can be encoded in the photons of light transmitted by the spacecraft. When that light arrives on Earth, it can be reassembled into images or other important data that will be sent by spacecraft – and possibly humans – in the future.