Last fall, the US space agency launched its mission called Psyche, during which the spacecraft will reach the asteroid with the same name, while the team is also testing a new laser communication device, which has now sent a message to Earth from 226 million kilometers.
The new communication system uses an infrared laser rather than radio waves and has now been proven to work successfully even from the most remote location. THE Psyche spacecraft already 226 million kilometers away – this is 1.5 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun – it is from the Earth and from here it recently managed to send a meaningful message using a laser.
The probe previously sent a message from 16 million kilometers away, but at that time the DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications) communication spacecraft was only in test operation, now it has managed to transmit real data to the system. The test on April 8 showed that even from this distance data can be downloaded at a maximum speed of 25 Mbpswhich is 10-100 times faster than radio transmissions.
The researchers pointed out that there are still problems with the technology, for example, the connection is easily interrupted in cloudy weather, they can communicate via laser almost only in clear weather, while there are no such problems with radio waves. The team will test the system again in June, when Psyche will be 2.5 times the distance from Earth to the Sun.
Tags: NASA received message space million kilometers Astronomy
