NASA has successfully sent a laser signal from to a spacecraft about 290 million miles away in a major that could potentially transform our exploration of the solar system.
The huge milestone was reached by 's Deep Space Optical Communications demonstration, which is looking at the possibility of using lasers to send messages deep into , on July 29. The signal was sent to the Psyche spacecraft, a mission launched on October 13, 2023, to explore a 140-mile-wide (225 kilometres) metallic asteroid called 16 Psyche.
The signal travelled 460 million kilometres - roughly the same distance between Earth and Mars when the two planets are farthest apart. NASA hopes that the laser technology can help empower future crewed missions to .
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"The milestone is significant. Laser communication requires a very high level of precision, and before we launched with Psyche, we didn't know how much performance degradation we would see at our farthest distances," said Meera Srinivasan, the project's operations lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "Now the techniques we use to track and point have been verified, confirming that optical communications can be a robust and transformative way to explore the solar system."
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the test broke the record for "the farthest laser communication ever sent" as he congratulated the team on the "extraordinary achievement". He wrote on X, formerly called : "NASA has broken the record for the farthest laser communication ever sent! We sent a laser signal to our Psyche spacecraft about 290 million miles away. Congrats, team. This extraordinary achievement will transform the way we explore the solar system."
NASA said that when the spacecraft was about 240 million miles away from Earth, the laser system "achieved a sustained downlink data rate of 6.25 megabits per second, with a maximum rate of 8.3 megabits per second." NASA said this shows that the laser can outperform traditional radio-based frequencies for space communications.
It comes after NASA's Perseverance rover captured a stunning image of a two-kilometre-high . This awe-inspiring spectacle, resembling a towering "devil", was observed as part of the rover's atmospheric exploration of Jezero Crater.
The six-wheeled geologist robot documented the lower portion of the dust devil as it gracefully moved across the Martian landscape, stretching from east to west at a speed of about 19 kilometres per hour (12 mph) along "Thorofare Ridge" on August 30. Unlike Earth's tornadoes, these Martian dust devils are much weaker but significantly larger, making them vital subjects of study for scientists aiming to comprehend the intricacies of the Martian atmosphere.
Dust devils on Mars, akin to their terrestrial counterparts, form when warm air rises and mixes with descending cooler air, generating rotating columns of dust. Despite their weaker nature compared to Earth's tornadoes, these Martian whirlwinds can grow to extraordinary heights, as demonstrated by the two-kilometer-high dust devil spotted by Perseverance.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) explained that dust devils are essential mechanisms for moving and redistributing dust across Mars. By studying these phenomena, scientists can gain valuable insights into the Martian climate and atmospheric processes, ultimately refining their models for the Red Planet.
