[YOUTUBE VIDEO] Testing Space Lasers for Deep Space Optical Communications (Mission Overview)

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Testing Space Lasers for Deep Space Optical Communications (Mission Overview)

How might lasers revolutionize deep space communications? NASA will test high-bandwidth laser (or optical) communications for the first time beyond the Moon with a pioneering technology demonstration called Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC).

If successful, this kind of laser communications technology could be used to transmit large volumes of data – such as streaming video and higher-resolution science observations – from robotic spacecraft and from future astronauts exploring Mars.

DSOC is attached to NASA’s Psyche spacecraft and will send and receive signals during the first two years of Psyche’s six-year journey to the metal-rich asteroid of the same name. During its demonstration period, DSOC will not be transmitting Psyche data, but rather its own set of data. The experiment involves a transceiver on the spacecraft along with two ground stations – one at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Table Mountain facility and the other at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory.