Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC)

Re:Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) by sholladay on Wednesday January 17, 2024 @06:05PM (#39034876)

How much bandwidth are we talking about? 1 Mbps? 10 Mbps? I read most of the fact sheet but it doesn’t seem to provide an answer other than “10x state of the art radio”.

Anyway, this is very cool. And it’s an important change if we live in the dark forest solution of the Fermi paradox. :)

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Re:Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) by mfwit on Wednesday January 17, 2024 @06:24PM (#39035089)

Looks like they hit 267Mbps at 19 million miles away on Dec 11th.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-tech-demo-streams-first-...

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Re:Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) by p1mrx on Wednesday January 17, 2024 @09:46PM (#39036942)

I wonder what sort of rate they'll get at Mars distance (400 million km)? Psyche's orbit is beyond Mars, so we're likely to find out if the spacecraft stays operational.

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Re:Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) by mfwit on Wednesday January 17, 2024 @10:31PM (#39037393)

This pdf is like 10yrs old, but graph in the top right outlines the rate based on distance.

https://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/july2014/posters/9-DSOC_OPAG_P...

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Re:Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) by p1mrx on Wednesday January 17, 2024 @10:46PM (#39037523)

https://i.imgur.com/O9P58EG.png

The first line is around 267 Mbps, so it looks like they're expecting 10 Mbps at max distance to Mars.

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Re:Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) by LoveMortuus on Thursday January 18, 2024 @11:20AM (#39043649)

That's still a really good speed, but I think the bigger question might be latency.

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Re:Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) by itishappy on Thursday January 18, 2024 @12:42PM (#39044826)

Latency would be determined almost completely by the speed of light itself.

Earth to Mars ranges from 5.5*10^10 to 4.0*10^11 m, and light travels 3*10^8 m/s.

Earth-Mars latency is therefore from 3 to 22 minutes one-way.

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Re:Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) by pseudosavant on Wednesday January 17, 2024 @06:21PM (#39035055)

The test they performed recently streamed ~265mbps from Psyche to Earth

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Re:Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) by Arrath on Wednesday January 17, 2024 @09:56PM (#39037066)

Let me take a breath and not get salty about the internet service options available to my parents.

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