Human beings have received a laser signal from space at an incredible distance. It’s a big milestone

NASA’s Psyche mission is proving to be a real success

NASA is the state space agency that is carrying out the most operations in space. Both in deep space and in the vicinity of our world. In this sense, the agency is trying new ways of communicating with its probes and with possible human bases in the future. Thus, they have now achieved a hitherto unimaginable milestone: transmitting through laser signals with great speed compared to radio waves. Thus, the Psyche probe has been in charge of send a laser signal that the human being has received.

A new way to communicate in space

NASA’s Psyche mission has a very specific objective: to study the asteroid of the same name to try to understand the formation of our Solar System. However, as detailed in a statement from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), they have achieved a milestone. very different when it comes to deep space communication. They have used an infrared laser instead of radio waves to overcome communication distances that we have with satellites and machines that operate at great distances from the Earth.

Thus, they have managed to prove it to the longest distance so far, with 226 million kilometers from Earth. Until now, Psyche used the Deep Space Network from NASA, the medium through which data is usually transmitted on a regular basis in the most remote areas of space. On this occasion, data has also been transmitted through the Deep Space Optical Communication systemwhich is expected to be the network that can replace the old radio waves.

In addition, it has also exceeded the expectations expected of this system. Compared to the expected data download of 1 Mbps (the internet we had years ago) which was 10 to 100 times faster than current radio transmissions, the truth is that it has been possible to download at 25 Mbps, increasing significantly the flow of data that can be received in a fairly short time.

“We transmitted about 10 minutes of duplicate data from the spacecraft during a pass on April 8. Until then, we had been sending test and diagnostic data on our downlinks from Psyche. This represents an important milestone for the project by showing how the “Optical communications can interface with a spacecraft’s radio frequency communications system” – Meera Srinivasan, project operations leader at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Thus, they transmitted the data they needed in just 10 minutes, marking a very important milestone in optical communications and marking the beginning of the end of radio waves, although these are more efficient in some aspects. Laser communication has a number of problems, especially if we take into account that clouds and storms can interrupt these communications. They are needed clear skies to achieve real success in this regard.

In June, Psyche will be 2.5 times the distance from Earth to the Sun and will be tested again with a very interesting goal in mind: to test whether a data network could be created between Earth and Mars. This is because it is the right distance between both planets, so it could be a really interesting option for the future. Again it can be seen how NASA and its Artemis mission They have their sights set on setting foot on Mars and, in the future, creating a stable base on the planet.

A stable base on Mars

NASA’s goal is clear. The Psyche mission aims to know the origin of our Solar Systembut on its way to entering the asteroid’s orbit we find that They are carrying out other experiments. This one, which has to do with the data emission and reception via laser has in mind the human communications between colonies in the future.

In this regard, there is a person who is clear about what we will need to go to Mars and it is Elon Musk who has also dared to predict when we will reach Mars.

However, there is still time, but these missions are really interesting for a future in which humans no longer have an exclusive presence on Earth.

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