NASA has successfully sent a laser signal about 290 million miles, potentially transforming our exploration of the solar system.
The milestone was reached by NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, which is exploring whether it is possible to use lasers to send messages deep into space. Lasers can send data at rates up to 100 times that of the radio frequencies used today, allowing for more complex and high-definition data, but they also require much greater precision to work.
It was sent to the Psyche spacecraft, which launched in October 2023. Its main mission is to study an asteroid with the same name, but it is also carrying the NASA experiment to test laser communication through space.
The distance is roughly the same as that between the Earth and Mars when they are at their most distant apart.
NASA hopes that the laser technology can help empower future crewed missions to Mars, among other exploration of our solar system, and so the successful test marks a major breakthrough.
Nasa administrator Bill Nelson sent his congratulations to the team involved: “This extraordinary achievement will transform the way we explore the solar system,” he wrote.