2023-08-16 13:45:49
Laser beam space telecommunications have great potential to surpass the capabilities of radio wave communications, the traditional form of communication between Earth and a vehicle beyond Earth, or between ships in space.
NASA is working on laser technologies that could increase bandwidth to transmit more complex scientific data and even stream video from Mars.
Scheduled to launch into space this fall, NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) test will test how the use of laser beams could speed data transmission at rates much greater than those of current radio systems used in space. DSOC, as proof of the technology’s feasibility, may lead the way to broadband interplanetary telecommunications, thereby helping humanity take the next great leap into space: sending humans to Mars.
DSOC’s near-infrared laser transmitter-receiver will “piggyback” into space on NASA’s Psyche space probe when it begins its journey to the metal-rich asteroid of the same name in October.
DSOC will carry out its operations for almost two years after the launch into space of the Psyche probe, while it flies towards Mars, a first stage of the trip that will take it to fly over that planet in 2026, and then continue with its trip whose final destination is the asteroid Psyche.
While the DSOC transceiver will be housed on the Psyche spacecraft, the tech demo will not transmit data from the Psyche mission. The success of each mission is evaluated independently of the other.
During these nearly two years of travel, DSOC’s laser transceiver will communicate with two ground stations in southern California. This will enable the testing of ultra-sensitive detectors, powerful laser transmission systems, and novel methods for decoding signals reaching Earth from the deep-space transceiver.
The DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications) transmitter-receiver is inside a large tube-shaped sunshade on the Psyche spacecraft, as seen in these photos. The small photo, inset to the side of the large one, was taken before the large photo, and shows the transmitter-receiver assembly before it was placed on the spacecraft. (Photos: NASA JPL/Caltech)
The DSOC was designed to be able to send a data rate to Earth between 10 and 100 times greater than the rate offered by the latest generation radio systems used in space today, as stressed by Abi Biswas, specialist from the DSOC team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California. “High-bandwidth laser communications have been tested in near-Earth orbits and on satellites orbiting the Moon, but deep space presents new challenges.”
There are more missions heading into deep space than ever before, and they promise to collect exponentially more data than previous missions, in the form of complex scientific measurements, high-definition images, and video. Therefore, experiments like the DSOC will play a crucial role in helping NASA advance technologies that can be used routinely by spacecraft and ground-based space communication systems in the future. (Source: NCYT from Amazings)
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