Although the immediate goal of the international space race in time is the Moon, there are already prospects on Mars. Traveling to the Red Planet will pose many technological challenges, including communication with Earth. The astronauts on the mission will 225 million kilometers our planet, in such a way that sending information both from here and from there would take a very long time. Too much when it comes to solving problems that require good control. So the fact that NASA just sent for the first time communication via laser at a distance of 226 million kilometers This is a scientific milestone.
Typically, information is transmitted via radio waves. It is this route that is used, for example, by the Voyager 1 probe. It is currently over 24 billion kilometers away, so transmitting messages takes time. 22.5 hours to get to her and many others to return to Earth. Something faster is needed, which is why scientists have long been studying how to send a message using a laser.
The first big step in this direction was taken in 1992when the Galileo probe managed to detect a laser sent from Earth to 6 million kilometers from here. But he just discovered it. He didn’t read any information in it. Later in 2001, the European Space Agency’s Artemis satellite established a data connection using this type of light for the first time. Later the technique was improved, but it was NASA’s Psyche spacecraft that managed to break all records thanks to its space optical communications system. It already broke the record last November and has just done it again, laying the foundations for what space messaging will look like in the future.
How to send a message using a laser?
Typically, information, both on Earth and beyond, is transmitted through radio waves.
Information of any type is converted into an electrical signal through converter and then this signal is converted into radio waves, which are able to propagate in space in all directions without the need for cables. This allowed communication with space for decades, but it also had some obstacles.
For example, since radio waves travel in all directions, optimizing delivery to a specific location is more difficult. This, and the difficulty of downloading many simultaneous information, assumes that delivering messages in space takes some time. Instead, laser messaging solves these problems.
Lasers use mid-frequency infrared radiation with a wavelength low enough to transmit a lot of information at once. This is because data can be loaded into each of the wave’s oscillations. If its length is short, there will be more vibrations in the same space and more information can be loaded. Moreover, since the photon beam is directed to a specific point, information is not lost in all directions and can travel faster. In particular, it is assumed that sending a message using a laser will 10 to 100 times faster than radio waves.
Milestones in the development of Psyche
In November 2023, the Psyche probe managed to send information to a beacon located on the Hale Telescope at a distance of 16 million kilometers.
Now it has gone even further, sending information back and forth to Earth at its current location. That is, to 226 million kilometers.
This is not the purpose of the ship. Its mission is to go to the satellite of the same name, located at a distance of 450 million kilometers. The journey will last 6 yearsfrom the time it is sent in 2023. After that, it will focus on analyzing data such as topology, gravity or composition of the satellite. This object is believed to be the core of a planet that has lost its outer crust due to collisions and friction with other objects. Therefore, the data obtained by the spacecraft can give us very useful information about the dawn of the solar system.
But at the same time, it can also be used to better understand how a message can be sent using a laser. This will make communication with Mars easier when the time comes. Psyk still has a long journey ahead, but this stop along the way was the most interesting.
Source: Hiper Textual
