NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment launches with Psyche: All you need to know

NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment integrated into the agency's Psyche spacecraft launched on Friday, October 13, to space.

Composed of a flight laser transceiver and a ground system, DSOC will be the first demonstration of laser, also called optical, communications beyond the Earth-Moon system.

Laser communications will allow increased data rates, with 10 to 100 times the capacity of current radio telecommunications systems used in spacecraft. This will enable future human and robotic exploration missions to transmit higher-resolution images, larger volumes of science data, and even live-streaming video to Earth.

The DSOC laser transceiver features both a near-infrared laser transmitter to send high-rate data to Earth and a never-before-flown photon-counting camera to receive a laser beam sent from Earth.

During the first two years of Psyche's journey to the metal-rich asteroid, the transceiver will communicate with two ground stations in Southern California, demonstrating high-rate transmission of data of distances up to 240 million miles (390 million kilometres).

Our Deep Space Optical Communications experiment is launching with the #MissionToPsyche today at 10:19 am EDT! 🚀 Here are 5 things to know about this cutting-edge tech demonstration of high-bandwidth communications in deep space for the first time: https://t.co/kqzWBLIHiS pic.twitter.com/UvyYG4OfqU

— NASA Technology (@NASA_Technology) October 13, 2023

"DSOC was designed to demonstrate 10 to 100 times the data-return capacity of state-of-the-art radio systems used in space today. High-bandwidth laser communications for near-Earth orbit and for Moon-orbiting satellites have been proven, but deep space presents new challenges," says Abi Biswas, DSOC's project technologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

If successful, the DSOC technology will help support the agency's future ambitions like landing astronauts on Mars. The groundbreaking technology could increase bandwidth to transmit more complex science data from the Red Planet.