{"id":287694,"date":"2025-09-20T00:32:42","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T14:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?guid=954479dd8377d9dd13278cf475d461b5"},"modified":"2025-09-20T00:32:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T14:32:42","slug":"a-beacon-to-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=287694","title":{"rendered":"A Beacon to Space"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\"A<\/a><\/figure>
\n
NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In this infrared photograph taken on June 2, 2025, the Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory\u2019s Table Mountain Facility<\/a> near Wrightwood, California, beams its eight-laser beacon to the Deep Space Optical Communications<\/a> (DSOC) flight laser transceiver aboard NASA\u2019s Psyche spacecraft. At the time, when Psyche was about 143 million miles (230 million kilometers) from Earth.<\/p>\n

Managed by JPL, DSOC successfully demonstrated<\/a> that data encoded in laser photons could be reliably transmitted, received, and then decoded after traveling millions of miles from Earth out to Mars distances. Nearly two years after launching aboard the agency\u2019s Psyche mission in 2023, the demonstration completed its 65th and final \u201cpass\u201d on Sept. 2, 2025, sending a laser signal to Psyche and receiving the return signal from 218 million miles (350 million kilometers) away.<\/p>\n

Text credit: Ian J. O’Neill<\/em><\/p>\n

Image credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this infrared photograph taken on June 2, 2025, the Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory\u2019s Table Mountain Facility near Wrightwood, California, beams its eight-laser beacon to the Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) flight laser transceiver aboard NASA\u2019s Psyche spacecraft. At the time, when Psyche was about 143 million miles (230 million [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-287694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t