The deep space communications system has completed an important milestone by successfully transmitting laser signals from a distance equivalent to the furthest distance between Earth and Mars.
The Psyche mission is on course for the metallic asteroid of the same name. Throughout the journey, the spacecraft will continue to test the future communications system. Laser light transmitted from Earth to Psyche on July 29, when the spacecraft flew 460 million km from the planet, according to IFL Science.
This is not the first laser signal transmission between Psyche and Earth. In the past, the ship has transmitted or received data, photos, even color video, but this is the farthest transmission. This is also the furthest distance between Earth and Mars.
“This milestone is very important. Laser communication requires high precision and before launching Psyche, we did not know how much performance decreased at the longest distance,” Meera Srinivasan, project operations team leader at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, said. “Now that the techniques we use for tracking and targeting have been validated, confirming that optical communications can become a reliable method for exploring the solar system.”
The entire Deep Space Optical Communications system is experimental, looking at what can be done with today’s technology and where it might be built in the future. The research team conducted experiments at several different distances to determine the amount of data that could be transmitted.
At a distance of 53 million km, equivalent to the closest distance between Mars and Earth, the maximum data rate is 267 megabits per second, comparable to broadband download speeds. On June 24, when the Psyche spacecraft flew 390 million km from Earth, the normal data transmission speed was 6.25 megabits per second, with a maximum of 8.3 megabits per second. The speed is significantly reduced compared to previous testing but is still 100 times faster than radio communication. Researchers were able to download nearly 11 terabi of data during this first phase of testing.
“A key goal for the system is to demonstrate a reduction in data transmission rates proportional to the inverse square of the distance, according to Abi Biswas, project technologist at JPL. The next step in the quest Currently, the spacecraft is turning off its systems and will turn them back on on November 4 to demonstrate that it can operate for at least a year in a few years. In 2029, the spacecraft will reach asteroid 16 Psyche and begin orbiting it until at least the end of 2031.