Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC)

• NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment, aboard the Psyche spacecraft, has accomplished a groundbreaking “first light” moment.

• The DSOC experiment, which has the potential to revolutionize spacecraft communication, successfully transmitted data via laser to and from beyond the moon for the first time, marking a significant milestone in deep space communication.
• DSOC system that consists of a flight laser transceiver, a ground laser transmitter, and a ground laser receiver.
• DSOC’s primary goal is to demonstrate data transmission rates 10 to 100 times greater than current state-of-the-art radio frequency systems used by spacecraft.
  • This advancement holds promise for transmitting scientific information, high-definition imagery, and streaming video, significantly contributing to future human missions to Mars.
• The achievement was realized as the near-infrared laser, encoded with test data, traversed nearly 16 million kilometers, a distance approximately 40 times farther than the Earth-Moon separation, to reach the Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County.

ABOUT PSYCHE MISSION

• NASA had launched a spacecraft called ‘Psyche’ on a six-year mission to study a unique metal-rich asteroid also named ‘Psyche.’
• It orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.
• The primary goal of the Psyche mission is to explore the iron core, a previously unexplored aspect of planet formation.
• Asteroid Psyche is unique as it appears to be the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet, one of the building blocks of our solar system.
  • For the first time, the mission will examine a celestial body primarily composed of metal rather than rock and ice.

Through this it aims to gain insights into the internal structure of terrestrial planets, including Earth.