In a recent breakthrough, NASA has successfully received a laser-beamed message from 16 million kilometers away in deep space. This achievement, reported by NASA, has the potential to revolutionize future deep space missions.
The laser transceiver responsible for this communication is part of the Psyche spacecraft. Psyche is currently on a two-year mission headed towards the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Over the next six years, it will travel about 3.6 billion kilometers to reach the outer part of the main asteroid belt, where a metal asteroid named Psyche is located.
Accompanying Psyche is the Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration (DSOC). DSOC was designed for NASA’s most distant experiment involving high-bandwidth laser communications.
During this groundbreaking event, the spacecraft successfully communicated with the Hale Telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California. This achievement opens up new possibilities for advanced communication in deep space exploration.
