NASA's Psyche craft, located a whopping 10 million miles from Earth, has successfully sent a message, marking a significant leap in our ability to communicate across vast distances in space. The key to this success is a cutting-edge technology called Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC), which utilises high-bandwidth lasers or optical communications. NASA plans to test DSOC beyond the moon for the first time, paving the way for a revolution in deep space communication. If successful, this laser communication technology could enable the transmission of large volumes of data, including streaming video and higher-resolution science observations, from robotic spacecraft and future astronauts exploring Mars. Watch video here; The DSOC experiment is part of NASA's Psyche spacecraft and will operate during the initial two years of Psyche's six-year journey to study a metal-rich asteroid of the same name. During this demonstration period, DSOC will not transmit Psyche's data but rather its own set of information. View this post on Instagram A post shared by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (@nasajpl) The experiment involves a transceiver on the spacecraft and two ground stations—one at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Table Mountain facility and the other at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory.
