![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Infrared-photo-of-the-Table-Moutnain-DSCO-machinery-in-action-Credit-NASAJPL-Caltech-1024x576.jpg\")
Infrared photo of the Table Mountain DSCO machinery in action \u2013 Credit NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/p>\n Infrared photo of the Table Mountain DSCO machinery in action \u2013 Credit NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/p>\n
NASA recently achieved an incredible milestone in an even more incredible quest: providing broadband to the solar system.<\/p>\n
But speaking specifically, the organization\u2019s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) division just downlinked 15 terabits of data from the Psyche Mission about 300 million miles from Earth via laser beam.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s over three times the distance between the Earth and the Sun, and it represents a huge breakthrough in outer space communications that will be absolutely necessary in the future, and pretty much necessary now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are kind of bottlenecks now in just how much volume of data we can get down in a given amount of time from the transmitters that we have,\u201d said Sean Meenehan, the DSOC Ground Software Lead, referring to existing technology of using radio waves.<\/p>\n
Aside from the brilliant scientists and engineers behind it, DSOC consists of a laser transceiver, which is mounted on the Psyche spacecraft, and two ground stations. NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Table Mountain Facility sends a laser beam to Psyche, which receives it and uses that signal to accurately beam its own laser to the second station, Caltech\u2019s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County.<\/p>\n
The laser sends back data encoded and communicated basically like morse code but with flickers in its light beam. How difficult is that? Try using a laser pointer to highlight Mars in the sky.<\/p>\n
Both Psyche and Earth are moving through space at tremendous speeds, and they are so distant from each other that the laser signal\u2014which travels at the speed of light\u2014can take several minutes to reach its destination. By using the precise pointing required from the ground and flight laser transmitters to close the communication link, teams at NASA proved that optical communications can be done to support future missions throughout the solar system.<\/p>\n
In December 2023, it made history when it sent an ultra-high-definition video of Taters the cat<\/a> chasing a laser pointer to Earth from over 19 million miles away at 267 megabits per second.<\/p>\n In December 2024, DSCO completed its 65th and final pass, when it received a downlinked signal from 307 million miles away\u2014far past Mars.<\/p>\n MORE NASA MISSION UPDATES:\u00a0<\/p>\n