NASA has a communicating problem : The tuner frequencies used by spacecraft for communications aregetting too busy . As more missions are send into outer space , and as these missions conduct progressively sophisticated legal instrument , the amount of datum that postulate to be sent back to Earth is growing beyond the capacity of current radio communication system .

The solution to this trouble is to utilize higher absolute frequency , which can transmit more datum . But before any unexampled communication organisation can be put into far-flung use , it has to be tested .

That ’s the intention of the Deep Space Optical Communications tryout , which has hitched a ride on the Psyche delegation head to the solar system ’s main asteroid belt to quiz whether it ’s possible to use laser for more efficient communications . The experimentsent back its first test data last year , and earlier this year , it was able tosend back literal spacecraft data successfully .

Now , DSOC has arrive at a new milestone , as it has completed its first phase of operations and has sent data point from 290 million miles away — which is the same maximal distance that exists between Earth and Mars at their farthermost apart .

“ The milepost is significant . Laser communication command a very high level of preciseness , and before we launch with Psyche , we did n’t know how much carrying into action debasement we would see at our farthest distance , ” suppose DSOC ’s operations lead , Meera Srinivasan , in astatement . “ Now the techniques we use to tail and point have been assert , confirm that optical communication can be a robust and transformative fashion to search the solar scheme . ”

Before launch DSOC , the engineer were confident that laser communication theory were potential , and they had estimation for how precise they would be over very long distances . But in any distance engineering , it is always important to insure that things work in recitation as well as in hypothesis . One of the main challenges for DSOC was control that the antennae on the land and the spacecraft could be pointed toward each other accurately enough to send data over tremendous distances .

The team also require to test what information pace they could bear to see using optical maser communication from different distances . At 33 million miles by , comparable to Mars at its closest to Earth , DSOC attain a piece rate of 267 megabits per second , which is similar to broadband net f number . At a much further distance of 240 million international nautical mile , it still managed 6.25 Mbit per second . you’re able to see how much the space cause the scrap pace to throw , but the new charge per unit is still much faster than is possible with current radio communication organization .

Now that the first part of the test is make out , the transceiver has been powered down . But the experimentation is n’t over yet , as it will be power on again next month to break that the hardware can exist a full year in quad and proceed to operate well .

“ We ’ll power on the flying laser transceiver and do a short checkout of its functionality , ” state Ken Andrews , undertaking flight cognitive process lead . “ Once that ’s achieved , we can look frontward to operate the transceiver at its full plan capableness during our post - conjunction stage that jump later in the year . ”