Earth received a laser message from 226 million km away
NASA has revealed that Earth has just received a laser message from 226 million kilometers away.
THE SIGNAL CAME FROM NASA’S NEW SPACECRAFT
The signal, which originated approximately 225,308,160 kilometers away, came from NASA’s new spacecraft, “Psyche.”
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is currently 225,308,160 kilometers – 1.5 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
It said in a statement that this remarkable achievement not only provides a glimpse into the future of spacecraft communication but also paves the way for higher-data-rate communications of complex scientific information, high-definition imagery, and video. This is a significant step towards humanity’s next giant leap: sending humans to Mars.
THIS IS A SIGNIGICANT STEP TOWARDS HUMANITY’S NEXT GIANT LEAP
“We downlinked about 10 minutes of duplicated spacecraft data during a pass on 8 April,” said Meera Srinivasan, the project’s operations lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
“Until then, we’d been sending test and diagnostic data in our downlinks from Psyche. This represents a significant milestone for the project by showing how optical communications can interface with a spacecraft’s radio frequency comms system.”
NASA said.
Furthermore, NASA stated that this demo designs laser communications technology to transmit data from deep space at rates 10 to 100 times faster than the state-of-the-art radio frequency systems used by deep space missions today.
This demo aims to transmit data from deep space at rates 10 to 100 times faster
After launching on 13 October 2023, the spacecraft remains healthy and stable as it journeys to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter to visit the asteroid Psyche.
“NASA’s optical communications demonstration has shown that it can transmit test data at a maximum rate of 267 megabits per second (Mbps) from the flight laser transceiver’s near-infrared downlink laser — a bit rate comparable to broadband internet download speeds.”
NASA BEAMED A 15-SECOND ULTRA-HIGH-DEFINITION TO EARTH FROM 31 MILLION KM
As the spacecraft is now more than seven times farther away, its ability to send and receive data decreases, as expected.
“We loaded the video, along with other test data, including digital versions of Arizona State University’s Psyche Inspired artwork, onto the flight laser transceiver before Psyche launched last year.”
As the spacecraft has moved more than seven times farther away, it naturally experiences a reduction in its ability to send and receive data.
THE TEST FAR EXCEEDED THE PROJECT’S GOAL
NASA said that during the 8 April test, the spacecraft transmitted test data at a maximum rate of 25 Mbps, which far exceeded the project’s goal of proving that at least 1 Mbps was possible at that distance.
Late last year, NASA issued a warning that a solar superstorm expected to hit Earth could ‘wipe out the internet.’