It could transmit data up to 100 times faster than existing radio systems and may even enable video streams from Mars.
During the first two years of the Psyche spacecraft's journey to its target asteroid, the DSOC near-infrared laser transceiver will communicate with two ground stations in southern California.
NASA is developing laser communications for space due to its potential to outperform existing radio-based communications systems massively. "DSOC was designed to demonstrate 10 to 100 times the data-return capacity of state-of-the-art radio systems used in space today," said Abi Biswas, DSOC's project technologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "High-bandwidth laser communications for near-Earth orbit and Moon-orbiting satellites have been proven, but deep space presents new challenges."The Psyche mission is scheduled to liftoff in October 2023.
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