NASA received a signal from a spacecraft 10 million miles away.
The message, delivered using a remote laser, could “transform” communications with the spacecraft, the space agency said.
This represents a success for NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment. It is also the first time that data has been successfully relayed via laser from a location farther away than the Moon, marking a rapid increase in distance from the Moon’s surface by more than 40 times.
Currently, nearly all communication with spacecraft in deep space occurs through radio signals sent and received from vast antennas on Earth. Although these have proven to be reliable, their limited bandwidth makes sending large files such as high-resolution photos and videos slow or impossible.
NASA’s work on DSOC is an attempt to use optical communications via lasers instead. The space agency says the technology could increase data speeds by up to 100 times.
The first attempt to test the technology beyond the moon was with NASA’s Psyche mission, which left Earth last month to study a distant asteroid. The spacecraft is equipped with a laser transceiver that can send and receive laser signals in near-infrared light.
Last week, the device locked onto a NASA laser beacon in California. NASA says the “First Light” breakthrough is part of a number of experiments it hopes will prove that laser technology works.
“Achieving First Light is one of many important DSOC milestones to be achieved in the coming months, and will deliver high-speed, high-speed images capable of transmitting scientific information, high-definition images, and streaming video to support humanity’s next great leap forward. “We’re paving the way for data communications to Mars,” said Trudy Cortez, director of technology demonstrations for the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
NASA likens pointing a laser signal precisely to trying to point a light at a coin from a mile away. Additionally, the laser and its target are constantly moving. In the 20 minutes it takes for light to reach Earth from Psyche’s furthest distance, both the planet and the spacecraft have moved significantly.
The team will now work on improving the system that ensures the spacecraft points the laser in the right direction. Once that happens, NASA plans to attempt experiments to demonstrate that the spacecraft can sustain high-bandwidth data transfers at various distances from Earth.
This is done by splitting the data into bits that can be encoded into photons of light transmitted from the spacecraft. That light then arrives at a telescope on Earth and can be reassembled into images and other important data that will be transmitted by spacecraft and perhaps humans in the future.