From Taters to Terabits: NASA Wraps Up Deep Space Laser Test

NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration has successfully concluded after two years, surpassing all technical goals and paving the way for future high-speed data transmission from Mars.

Flying aboard the agency’s Psyche spacecraft, DSOC proved that laser-encoded data could be transmitted and received reliably from distances over 200 million miles, achieving broadband-like speeds.

From streaming an ultra-high-definition video of a cat named “Taters” across deep space to downlinking record-breaking volumes of spacecraft data, the project marked a major leap in communications technology that could benefit NASA’s human exploration efforts.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech