‘First light’: NASA receives laser-beamed message from 10 million miles away

An innovative experiment on NASA's Psyche mission has achieved a significant milestone by successfully conducting the most distant demonstration of laser communications. This technological demonstration has the potential to enhance NASA's ability to explore deeper into space and unravel more insights into the origins of the universe.

Launched in mid-October, Psyche is en route to becoming the first mission to provide humanity with a glimpse of a metal asteroid situated between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Over the next six years, the spacecraft will cover approximately 2.2 billion miles (3.6 billion kilometers) to reach its destination in the outer part of the main asteroid belt.

'First light': NASA receives laser-beamed message from 10 million miles away https://t.co/YrGYxDgcMn pic.twitter.com/fTaM9r5dt8

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Accompanying Psyche on its journey is the Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, or DSOC, which is conducting its own mission during the initial two years of the voyage.

The DSOC experiment is designed to be NASA's most distant exploration of high-bandwidth laser communications. It is testing the transmission and reception of data to and from Earth using an invisible near-infrared laser. This laser has the capability to transmit data at speeds ranging from 10 to 100 times faster than traditional radio wave systems employed by NASA in other missions. If successful in the upcoming years, this experiment could lay the groundwork for future communication technology used in missions involving human exploration of Mars.

Recently, DSOC achieved a crucial milestone known as "first light," successfully transmitting and receiving its first set of data. The experiment transmitted a laser, encoded with data from a location far beyond the moon, for the first time. This test data was sent from a distance of nearly 10 million miles (16 million kilometers) and reached the Hale Telescope at the California Institute of Technology's Palomar Observatory in Pasadena, California. Notably, the distance between DSOC and Hale was approximately 40 times greater than the distance from the moon to Earth.

The Deep Space Optical Communications team worked during the early morning hours of November 14 in the Psyche mission support area at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, to witness "first light."

Trudy Kortes, the director of technology demonstrations for the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA, emphasized that achieving "first light" is a critical milestone, paving the way for higher-data-rate communications that could support future human missions to Mars.

Sending Lasers Across Space

The successful transmission on November 14 occurred as the flight laser transceiver instrument on Psyche received a laser beacon from the Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Table Mountain Facility near Wrightwood, California. This initial beacon helped Psyche's transceiver aim its laser to transmit data back to the Hale Telescope, located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Table Mountain.

The DSOC ground laser transmitter operators were on site at the Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory at JPL's Table Mountain Facility near Wrightwood, California, for the first experiment.

While laser communications have been tested in space before, DSOC marks the first instance of laser communications being sent across deep space, requiring extremely precise aiming and pointing over millions of miles. The initial test will enable the DSOC team to refine the systems used for the laser's pointing accuracy before it can send and receive data to the Hale Telescope as the spacecraft moves farther from Earth.

Future Challenges

Although DSOC won't transmit scientific data collected by the Psyche spacecraft, as it is an experiment, the laser will be used to send encoded test data in the form of photons, or quantum light particles. This optical communication method could revolutionize how NASA sends and receives data from missions across deep space, offering the potential for increased data transmission and discoveries.

NASA receives laser beam from 10 million miles away: 'First light' https://t.co/97DgpPtypo

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Dr. Jason Mitchell, director of the Advanced Communications and Navigation Technologies Division within NASA's Space Communications and Navigation program, highlighted the significance of optical communication for scientists and researchers, stating that "more data means more discoveries."

As Psyche continues its journey, the DSOC team will face challenges in monitoring the time it takes for laser messages to travel across space. During the "first light" test, the laser took only 50 seconds to travel from Psyche to Earth. However, at the farthest distance between the spacecraft and Earth, it is expected to take 20 minutes for the laser to travel one way. During this time, the spacecraft will continue to move, and Earth will rotate.

Simultaneously, the Psyche spacecraft is preparing for its primary mission by activating propulsion systems and testing the scientific instruments necessary to study the asteroid upon its arrival in July 2029. The mission aims to determine whether the asteroid is the exposed core of an early planetary building block from the early stages of the solar system.