"Earth Receives Laser Message from 10 Million Miles in Deep Space"

NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment successfully transmitted a near-infrared laser beam encoded with test data from nearly 10 million miles away, marking the farthest-ever demonstration of laser communications. This achievement paves the way for higher-data-rate communications, enabling the transmission of scientific information, high-definition imagery, and streaming video to support future missions, including sending humans to Mars. The use of optical communications will significantly increase the capacity of current radio systems used by spacecraft. The DSOC experiment is part of NASA's Psyche spacecraft mission, which aims to study the asteroid Psyche 16 in the asteroid belt.