In our everyday lives on the ground
we use optical fibers
for really high speed communication,
and that capability has been adapted
for use in space near Earth.
DSOC stands for Deep Space Optical Communications,
which is using lasers to communicate at high rate
and the application of that to deep space
beyond the moon is what the DSOC project is about.
- Primary objective is to give future NASA missions
the tools for returning data at much higher rates.
- The signals travel at the speed of light,
so they come just as fast as they do for the microwaves.
But you could send more data in the same
time of a pass for the same spacecraft resources.
The notion of being able to communicate to have
video to astronauts on Mars is actually
part of the vision that NASA has for
optical communications.
DSOC consists of a flight terminal
that flies on the Psyche spacecraft
and then a ground network that has a station for
for transmitting up to the spacecraft
and then receiving the laser signal down
from the spacecraft.
- Here we have to send a laser beam from Earth
that the spacecraft has to receive
use as a pointing reference
and then initiate the communication link.
So it’s a very flight an ground joined at the hip
kind of telecommunications system.
- DSOC is being implemented
as a technology demonstration
to show that we know how to build terminals
that can do this with the idea
that in the future they can be flown
as part of the operational
communication system on future missions.
And we designed the terminal to operate out
to about Mars’ farthest distance.
And Psyche on its cruise actually does a Mars flyby.
So it’s an excellent vehicle for the demonstration
of deep space optical communication.
DSOC is the first time that there’ll be optical
communication demonstrated beyond the moon.
- The leap that DSOC is taking is huge.
I can’t express in words, you know, what
this will mean to actually see bits
that were transmitted from deep space spacecraft
received on the ground, and we can verify that,
hey, we got the bits that you sent.
Here they are.
Before that moment of elation and joy, you know,
there’s a lot of work that we still need to do and think through.
- And so this is a stepping stone for a future
operational capability that NASA’s committed to.
There’s a lot of activity in space
and a lot of collaborative work
that goes on, and itls very exciting to be part of.
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