NASA is testing technologies in space and on the ground that could increase bandwidth to transmit more complex science data and even stream video from Mars. Set to launch this fall, NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) project will test how lasers could speed up data transmission far b
into significantly tighter waves, enabling ground stations to receive more data at once.
The Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, will receive the high-rate data downlink from the DSOC flight transceiver. The telescope is fitted with a novel superconducting detector that is capable of timing the arrival of individual photons from deep space. Credit: Palomar/Caltech
Once locked onto the uplink laser, the transceiver will locate the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, about 100 miles south of Table Mountain. The transceiver will then use its near-infrared laser to transmit high-rate data down to Palomar. Spacecraft vibrations that might otherwise nudge the laser off target will be dampened by state-of-the-art struts attaching the transceiver to Psyche.
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