Another message from deep space! NASA spacecraft beams laser from 140mn miles away
Image of laser signal beamed from the space to Earth (Credit: NASA).
NASA achieved a historic feat after its deep space communication technology aboard thePsyche spacecraft broke all records and showcased its capabilities in transmitting messages using lasers from deep space to Earth.
This success hasnowincreased the possibility of future spacecraft utilising optical communications to enable more complex and faster data transmission.
NASA'sPsyche spacecraft, which is currently moving towards themainasteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, has been equipped with theDeep Space Optical Communicationstechnologyand wascreatedby the scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
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Although the primary communication system of the spacecraft is dependent on radio frequency, the demoof optical communicationshas shown that it is a potential game-changer in deep space communication.
A revolution in deep space communication?
The optical communications demowhichtook placeon April8ended successfully as a copy of engineering data was transmitted from over 140 million miles (226 million kilometres) away, which is 1½ times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
Project’s operations leadat JPLMeeraSrinivasansaid, “We downlinked about 10 minutes of duplicated spacecraft data during a pass on April 8. Until then, we’dbeen sendingtest and diagnostic data in our downlinks fromPsyche."
“This represents a significant milestone for the project by showing how optical communications can interface with a spacecraft’s radio frequency comms system,” she added.
The laser communications technology used in this demo hasbeen usedfor transmitting messages from deep space at a speed which is 10 to 100 times fasterin comparisonto the current state-of-the-art radio frequency systemswhichisusedby deep space missions.
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The experimentwas able to achievea maximum data transmission rate of 267 megabits per second (Mbps) on December 11,2023, from the near-infrared downlink laser of the light lasertransceiver.
Thiswas achievedwhen a 15-second ultra-high-definition videowas beamedby the spacecraft to Earth from19 million miles away.
The data transmission is likely to decrease as the spacecraft venturesfarther away from Earth.
During the April 8 test,data was being transmitted by the spacecraft at a maximum rate of 25 Mbps, which is beyond the project’s goal oftransmitting at least 1 Mbps from that distance.
“After receiving the data from theDSNandPalomar, we verified the optically downlinked data at JPL. It was a small amount of data downlinked over a short time frame, but the fact we’re doing this now has surpassed all of our expectations,” said Ken Andrews, who is a project flight operations lead atJPL.
(With inputs from agencies)