NASA successfully received a laser message from the asteroid Psyche (Psyche), located 226 million kilometers from Earth. This became part of the mission to study this unique asteroid.

During the trip, the team tested an innovative optical communications system that uses infrared lasers instead of radio waves. Data was transmitted at 25 Mbit/s, which significantly exceeded the expected minimum speed of 1 Mbit/s and proved to be 10 to 100 times faster than conventional radio transmissions.

According to Meera Srinivasan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this is a significant advance in using optical communications to supplement existing radio communications in space. During previous tests, the spacecraft was closer to Earth, but this time the technology showed its advantages from a record distance.

“Although storms occasionally disrupted operation at both Table Mountain and Palomar, we learned a lot about how far we could push the system when there were clear skies,” said Ryan Rogalin, receiver electronics lead for the project at JPL.

The NASA team plans to test the system further in June, when Psyche will be even further away from Earth, at a distance of 2.5 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun; This could open up opportunities to produce data between Earth and Mars. Source