Deep space optical communications technology demonstration

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration is ongoing following launch of NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, in October 13, 2023. The DSOC flight laser transceiver (FLT), integrated to the Psyche spacecraft, is implemented to acquire a 1064 nm laser beacon from earth, and return a 1550 nm serially concatenated pulse position modulated (SCPPM) signal. The FLT consists of: a 22 cm diameter unobscured aperture, optically coupled to a 4 W average power laser and an assembly of actuators, sensors, electronics and software. The multi-beam 1064 nm laser beacon with an average power of 7 kW, integrated to the Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory (OCTL) near Wrightwood, CA and equipped with necessary accessories, serves as the Ground Laser Transmitter (GLT). A photon-counting receiver integrated to the Palomar Observatory, Hale telescope (operated by Caltech Optical Observatories) constitutes the Ground Laser Receiver (GLR), for decoding information sent from space. A DSOC Mission Operations System (MOS) co-located with the Psyche Project Mission Support Area (MSA) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), coordinates DSOC technology demonstration activities. In this paper a system overview, mission plan, operations architecture are described. Early results that include end-to-end link operations at the maximum designed downlink data-rate of 267 Mb/s from 0.37 astronomical units (AU) and other initial measurements are presented.