It will also test a sophisticated new laser communication technology. Rather than radio-waves, it encodes data in photons for communication between a probe in deep space, and the Earth. Using light-waves instead of radio-waves enables the spacecraft to communicate with more data more quickly than in the past.
Despite the potential value of the 16 Psyche, there is still no plan to mine the asteroid.
NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) team is based at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California.
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