- Breakthrough in laser communication, NASA reports
- Psyche sent a message from 10 million miles away
Humanity has received a laser-borne message from beyond the moon for the first time, a breakthrough that could change the way spacecraft communicate during trips to Mars, US NASA scientists say.
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NASA reports a major breakthrough
In the most challenging demonstration of optical communications to date, the Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) instrument on board Psyche sent near-infrared laser-encoded data to the Hale telescope from its position about 16 million kilometers away, about 40 times farther than the Moon is from Earth at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in California.
According to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a historic moment occurred on Nov. 14 when the DSOC laser transmitter focused on an ascending beacon at the Table Mountain Facility near Wrightwood, California. This “guidance” beam then helped the DSOC system to redirect the laser beam to the Hale Telescope located at the Observatory on Table Mountain.
“This is one of many important milestones that pave the way for communications capable of sending high-resolution images and streaming video to support the next great leap in human history: sending humans to Mars,” Trudy Kortes, director of the Technology Demonstration Division at NASA Headquarters, said in a statement. .
Optical communication is used routinely to send messages from Earth orbit, but this case was something special. In a laser beam, a beam of photons moves in the same direction at the same wavelength. This technology makes it possible to transmit vast amounts of data at unprecedented speeds by encapsulating data in light wave oscillations and encoding an optical signal that can transmit messages to a receiver via infrared (invisible to humans) rays.
According to IFLScience, NASA uses radio waves to communicate with missions farther than the Moon, but the advantage of laser beams is that much more data can be packed into much tighter waves. “We are talking here about a transmission speed 10 to 100 times higher than that provided by current state-of-the-art radio communication systems,” the researchers write.
Communication over a distance of 16 million kilometers
Transmitting more data will allow future missions to carry much higher-resolution science instruments, and will also enable faster communications for potential deep-space missions — such as direct video transmissions from the surface of Mars.
“Optical communication benefits scientists and researchers who always want more from their space missions and will enable people to better explore deep space,” said Jason Mitchell, director of NASA’s Advanced Communications and Navigation Technologies Division. “More data means more discoveries.”
But first, some fundamental issues need to be resolved. The greater the distance that optical communication has to travel, the more difficult it is, as precise targeting of the laser beam is required. The photon signal will also weaken and take longer to reach its destination, ultimately causing a delay in communication.
During the Nov. 14 test, photons took approximately 50 seconds to travel from Psyche to Earth. By the time Psyche reaches its target destination – asteroid 16 Psyche, which contains minerals worth the world’s economy – their journey back will take approximately 20 minutes.
“The demonstration of the new technology has been very successful so far. The test was the first to fully involve ground assets and a flight transmitter, requiring the DSOC and Psyche operations teams to work in tandem,” said DSOC Chief of Operations Meera Srinivasan. “It was a huge challenge and we still have a lot of work to do, but for a short time we managed to transmit, receive and decode data.”
Preview photo source: Chalmers University of Technology, source: IFLScience
2023-12-18 06:30:46
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