From Taters to Terabits: NASA Wraps Up Deep Space Laser Test

Описание: NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration has successfully concluded after two years, surpassing all technical goals and paving the way for future high-speed data transmission from Mars.

Flying aboard the agency’s Psyche spacecraft, DSOC proved that laser-encoded data could be transmitted and received reliably from distances over 200 million miles, achieving broadband-like speeds.

From streaming an ultra-high-definition video of a cat named “Taters” across deep space to downlinking record-breaking volumes of spacecraft data, the project marked a major leap in communications technology that could benefit NASA’s human exploration efforts.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech