NASA’s Psyche has set a new benchmark for space communications.
In December 2024, the spacecraft successfully beamed an infrared laser message back to Earth from a mind-boggling distance of 494 million kilometers (307 million miles). That’s more than twice the average distance between Earth and Mars and more than 1,285 times the distance to the Moon.
It’s a triumph for NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology test, which has been underway since the asteroid-bound spacecraft launched in 2023. Now, Earth has received Psyche’s 65th and final laser downlink signal from a distance of 350 million kilometers (218 million miles).
Related: Earth Received a Message Laser-Beamed From 10 Million Miles Away in NASA Test
From this point, Psyche will focus on its mission to the asteroid belt, using more standard radio communications to downlink data back to Earth.
“NASA is setting America on the path to Mars, and advancing laser communications technologies brings us one step closer to streaming high-definition video and delivering valuable data from the Martian surface faster than ever before,” says acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy.
“Technology unlocks discovery, and we are committed to testing and proving the capabilities needed to enable the Golden Age of exploration.”
In total, the DSOC has successfully transferred 13.6 terabytes of data to Earth’s ground terminals, including an ultra-high-definition video beamed to Earth at 267 megabits per second from more than 30.5 million kilometers away in a historic first.
The reason the final message was from closer to Earth is that the Psyche spacecraft is following a solar orbit that sometimes brings it closer to Earth and sometimes farther, depending on the alignment, as it heads for a 2029 rendezvous with its namesake asteroid.
If we humans are going to continue our activities in space, we’ll need to upgrade our technology. Radio communications are reliable but relatively slow. In addition, the Deep Space Network of radio antennas that NASA uses to receive spacecraft data has already demonstrated capacity limitations that impact the agency’s ability to achieve mission objectives.
But transmitting laser signals is a bit trickier than generating radio transmissions. With radio communication, the signal is relatively broad, so it doesn’t need to be aimed with razor precision. Lasers are tightly focused beams that need to be aligned perfectly for the signal to reach the target receiver.
frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen>In addition, all light propagating through space attenuates and degrades, so the farther the distance to the target, the less data can be retrieved. By the time Psyche was 225 million kilometers from Earth in April 2024, its downlink rate had dropped to 25 megabits per second. This means that receivers have to be sensitive enough to detect the trickle of photons that manage to reach them.
Earth’s atmosphere and weather can also interfere with signals reaching the ground; eventually, space relays may be needed to help receive and store data. For now, however, the demonstration shows that DSOC technology works, and is robust enough to send large amounts of data across the gulf of deep space.
“NASA Technology tests hardware in the harsh environment of space to understand its limits and prove its capabilities,” says Clayton Turner, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
“Over two years, this technology surpassed our expectations, demonstrating data rates comparable to those of household broadband internet and sending engineering and test data to Earth from record-breaking distances.”
It’s extremely promising, and bodes well for communication with a future Mars mission, whenever that day comes. For now, the Psyche spacecraft is continuing to make its way deeper into the Solar System, towards another historic event.
You can read more about the DSOC on NASA’s website.
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