Aerospace & Defense Technology - June 2024 - 28

RF & Microwave Technology
APRIL 8, 2024
Psyche
MERCURY SUN
EARTH
VENUS
MER
MARS
This visualization shows the
Psyche spacecraft's position on
April 8, 2024 when the DSOC
flight laser transceiver transmitted
data at a rate of 25 Mbps over
140 million miles to a downlink
station on Earth. See an interactive
version of Psyche in NASA's
Eyes on the Solar System. (Image:
NASA/JPL-Caltech)
NASA's Optical Communications Demo Transmits Data Over 140 Million Miles
R
iding aboard NASA's Psyche spacecraft,
the agency's Deep Space Optical
Communications technology
demonstration continues to break
records. While the asteroid-bound
spacecraft doesn't rely on optical communications
to send data, the new
technology has proven that it's up to
the task. After interfacing with the Psyche's
radio frequency transmitter, the
laser communications demo sent a copy
of engineering data from over 140 million
miles (226 million kilometers)
away, 1½ times the distance between
Earth and the Sun.
This achievement provides a glimpse
into how spacecraft could use optical
communications in the future, enabling
higher-data-rate communications of
complex scientific information as well as
high-definition imagery and video in
support of humanity's next giant leap:
sending humans to Mars.
28
" We downlinked about 10 minutes of
duplicated spacecraft data during a pass
on April 8, " 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. "
The laser communications technology
in this demo is designed 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.
After launching on Oct. 13, 2023, the
spacecraft remains healthy and stable as
it journeys to the main asteroid belt
between Mars and Jupiter to visit the
asteroid Psyche.
mobilityengineeringtech.com
Surpassing Expectations
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.
That was achieved on Dec. 11, 2023,
when the experiment beamed a 15-second
ultra-high-definition video to Earth
from 19 million miles away (31 million
kilometers, or about 80 times the EarthMoon
distance). The video, along with
other test data, including digital versions
of Arizona State University's Psyche
Inspired artwork, had been loaded onto
the flight laser transceiver before Psyche
launched last year.
Now that the spacecraft is more than
seven times farther away, the rate at
which it can send and receive data is
Aerospace & Defense Technology, June 2024
140 MILLION MILES
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Aerospace & Defense Technology - June 2024

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