NASA laser communication experiment succeeds in sending data from beyond Moon
A NASA laser communication experiment on the asteroid probe Psyche succeeded on November 14, 2023 in sending data to and from the spacecraft as it traveled away from Earth.
NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment has beamed a near-infrared laser encoded with test data fromnearly 10 million miles (16 million kilometers) away – about 40 times farther than the Moon is from Earth – to the Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California. This is the farthest-ever demonstration of optical communications.
Riding aboard the recently launched Psyche spacecraft, DSOC is configured to send high-bandwidth test data to Earth during its two-year technology demonstration as Psyche travels to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California manages both DSOC and Psyche.
The experiment seeks to demonstrate the advantages of optical communications, which if successful could have data speeds ten to a hundred times faster than standard high band radio communications. While the technology has been demonstrated as far away as the Moon, this is the first successful test from deep space, a key advance that suggests the technology is becoming mature enough to use on planetary missions.
If so, it could largely replace or at least supplement the various radio-antenna networks on Earth, such as NASA’s Deep Space Network, with smaller and more efficient communication links.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
A NASA laser communication experiment on the asteroid probe Psyche succeeded on November 14, 2023 in sending data to and from the spacecraft as it traveled away from Earth.
NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment has beamed a near-infrared laser encoded with test data fromnearly 10 million miles (16 million kilometers) away – about 40 times farther than the Moon is from Earth – to the Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California. This is the farthest-ever demonstration of optical communications.
Riding aboard the recently launched Psyche spacecraft, DSOC is configured to send high-bandwidth test data to Earth during its two-year technology demonstration as Psyche travels to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California manages both DSOC and Psyche.
The experiment seeks to demonstrate the advantages of optical communications, which if successful could have data speeds ten to a hundred times faster than standard high band radio communications. While the technology has been demonstrated as far away as the Moon, this is the first successful test from deep space, a key advance that suggests the technology is becoming mature enough to use on planetary missions.
If so, it could largely replace or at least supplement the various radio-antenna networks on Earth, such as NASA’s Deep Space Network, with smaller and more efficient communication links.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
So one of the problems with using lasers from space to Earth is the atmosphere. Those pesky clouds. One thing they do now is satellites communicate with each other via laser and they retransmit back down using the Ka band over multiple frequencies.
Jay: Another potential customer for Starlink, OneWeb, Kuiper (when launched), and others! Instead of beaming communications from deep space to ground-based antennas, beam the data by laser to the satellite constellations in orbit, and have them transmit it to the ground.
I was just thinking the same thing. If the laser transmitters/receivers are in orbit the radio communications the up/down ground link would be much easier and wouldn’t need the big dishes like DSN’s.
You could put a relay satt in Mars orbit to handle the local traffic of orbiters and ground stations. Perhaps even laser relay stations in orbits further out to catch and boost signals from outer planets missions.
Could you shrink the size of these satellites down and launch a bunch of them to form a deep space constellation, solar system star link., to establish indirect communication with earth and the far side of Mars or Jupiter or the Sun?
You could put a relay satt in Mars orbit
George O Smith taught us that orbital relays are best in Sol/Venus L4 and L5.
“Another potential customer for Starlink, OneWeb, Kuiper (when launched), and others!”
Note the use of a 200″ telescope to receive the signal. The required infrastructure is still some distance from being ride-along on Starlink or the others.
You still want to keep the big dishes as infrastructure…also as radar like Goldstone for asteroids
Have a smallsat bean live video to a craft in orbit with lots of memory…then it radios the data down long after the smallsat hit it’s target, say…
I think the term “speed” as used in data transmission rate is endlessly abused.
In terms of speed, radio signals travel at the speed of light, the same as lasers.
The difference between the two is BANDWIDTH, with a splash of packet rate and stuff, that allows more information to be transmitted via laser as opposed to radio. And don’t get me started on how the guys over in marketing completely mal-used the term “broadband” with the advent of high “speed” internet communications…
Hint: Analog data transmission is technically “broadband,” and digital transmission is now and has always been “narrowband.”
Just A Person: Thanks for your comment. I notice that you have commented here a handful of times, but each time using a different nickname.
Please pick one and use it consistently. It helps the conversation if people know more about the commenter they are conversing with.
Hopefully they’ll get the focus and power soon. Never know when the Kzin are going to arrive!