By Amira Shehata
Thursday, November 23, 2023 01:25 PM
revealed NASA A laser beam struck Earth from more than 10 million miles away, but the laser was not deflected, and because the laser was sent toward Earth by NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, the agency says aliens were not responsible. More than 10 million miles (16 million kilometers) from Earth.
According to the British Daily Mail, NASA hopes the new technology will allow astronauts on future missions to make video calls to Earth from places as far away as Mars.
It was the first test or “first light” of the Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) laser system. Laser application To transmit data from a space farther than the Moon.
And she says NASA It wants to use proven technology to build a communications network in space, similar to the fiber-optic cable network used on Earth.
DSOC hitches a ride with the Psyche spacecraft as it completes its 2.2 billion mile (3.6 billion km) trip to asteroid 16 Psyche between Mars and Jupiter.
Psyche will complete a mission to Mars, giving NASA engineers a chance to see if future Mars missions can use lasers to stay in touch with Earth.
“Achieving first light is one of many important milestones for DSOC in the coming months,” said Trudy Curtis, technical description manager at NASA Headquarters.
Curtis added that the experiment paves the way for high-data-rate communications capable of transmitting scientific information, high-definition images and video streaming to support humanity’s next giant leap.
DSOC is the first to install a powerful uplink laser beacon transmitted by the Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory at JPL’s Table Mountain facility in California.
This allows the spacecraft to point the laser toward a communications line at Palomar, about 100 miles (130 km) to the south.
“This test is the first to fully integrate ground and airborne transponder assets, requiring the DSOC and Psych Operations teams to work side-by-side,” said Meera Srinivasan, DSOC operations chief at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“It was a big challenge and we had a lot of work to do, but for a short period of time, we were able to send, receive and decrypt some data,” he added.
“Award-winning beer geek. Extreme coffeeaholic. Introvert. Avid travel specialist. Hipster-friendly communicator.”
