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Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC)

NASA’s DSOC experiment is the agency’s first demonstration of optical communications beyond the Earth-Moon system. DSOC is a system that consists of a flight laser transceiver, a ground laser transmitter, and a ground laser receiver. New advanced technologies have been implemented in each of these elements.

Active Mission

DSOC Fact Sheet

Learn About Psyche

Tried-and-tested radio frequency communications from deep space are approaching their bandwidth limit, raising the need for upgraded communications systems. Future space missions, meanwhile, are expected to transmit huge volumes of science data, including high-definition images and video, significantly increasing the bandwidth required.

Mission Type

Technology Demonstration

Partner

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Launch

October 13, 2023

status

Ongoing

Deep Space Optical Communications News

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More Deep Space Optical Communications News

tA 64-pixel SNSPD array capable of counting over 1 billion photons per second with time resolution below 100 ps. The array is mounted in a chip carrier and can be efficiently coupled to a 5-meter telescope.

Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detectors for DSOC

Learn more about the first ever laser communication in deep space.

Employee working on the DSOC flight laser transceiver.

DSOC Flight Laser Transceiver Integrated with NASA's Psyche Spacecraft

Learn more about this demonstration.

The Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration's flight laser transceiver is shown at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in April 2021, before being installed inside its box-like enclosure that was later integrated with NASA's Psyche spacecraft.

DSOC's Flight Laser Transceiver

Learn more about the DSOC flight laser transceiver.

Contact

To learn more, please reach out to Jimi Russell at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. at (216) 704-2412 or via email.

Email Jimi Russell

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on Dec. 8, 2022, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Psyche Mission

Read the Psyche Blog

NASA’s Psyche mission, which will explore a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, launched October 13, 2023.

Psyche launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, intended to test high-data-rate laser communications, remains integrated into the spacecraft.

The Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration's flight laser transceiver is shown at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in April 2021, before being installed inside its box-like enclosure that was later integrated with NASA's Psyche spacecraft.

The Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration’s flight laser transceiver is shown at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in April 2021, before being installed inside its box-like enclosure that was later integrated with NASA’s Psyche spacecraft.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Psyche Images

See images of the Psyche spacecraft and Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC).

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