National Aeronautics and Space Administration

DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications)

Technology Demonstration

Overview

Tried-and-tested deep space radio 

frequency communications systems are 

approaching their bandwidth limit. Yet 

future space missions are expected to 

transmit huge volumes of science data, 

including high-definition images and 

video, that will require significantly more 

bandwidth. An upgrade is required. Much 

like fiber optics replacing old telephone 

lines on Earth as demand for data grows, 

going from radio communications to laser, 

or optical, communications will allow 

increased data rates throughout the solar 

system with 10 to 100 times the capacity 

of state-of-the-art radio systems currently 

used by spacecraft. 

NASA’s Deep Space Optical 

Communications (DSOC) experiment 

is the agency’s first demonstration of 

optical communications beyond the 

Moon. DSOC is a system that consists of 

a flight laser transceiver, a ground laser 

transmitter, and a ground laser receiver. 

New advanced technologies have been 

implemented in each of these elements. 

The transceiver will “piggyback” on NASA’s 

Psyche spacecraft when it launches in 

October 2023 to the metal-rich asteroid 

of the same name. The DSOC technology 

demonstration will begin shortly after 

launch and continue in two phases for 

about 2 years. The first phase of operations 

will last until June 2024 while the second 

phase is planned from January to October 

2025.

 

Key Goals

• Demonstrate that flight laser transceiver and ground systems are able 

to lock onto each other’s laser signals 

during DSOC’s calibration and commissioning phase. 

• Demonstrate specified downlink 

data rates as the Psyche spacecraft 

travels farther from Earth. These data 

rates will decrease as the distance 

from Earth grows.

• Demonstrate a data uplink up to a 

distance of 1 astronomical unit (the 

average distance between the Earth 

and Sun – 93 million miles, or 150 

million kilometers).

• Demonstrate operations for nearly 

two years after the Psyche mission 

launch, making one contact per week 

for the duration of the technology 

demonstration.

Timeline

• October 2023: Psyche spacecraft 

is scheduled to launch from NASA’s 

Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX 

Falcon Heavy rocket.

• Roughly 20 days after launch: DSOC 

calibration and commissioning phase 

is expected to begin, preparing the 

tech demo for operation.

• Roughly 50 days after launch: First 

expected contact opportunity beDSOC’s flight transceiver can be identified by its large 

tube-like sunshade on the Psyche spacecraft, as seen 

here inside a clean room at JPL. Inset: An earlier photo 

shows the transceiver assembly before it was integrated with the spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA Facts

downlinked the highest-ever data rate from a satellite 

in low-Earth orbit to a ground-based receiver. 

With a launch set in 2023, DSOC will take optical 

communications into deep space for the first time. 

This will set the foundation for establishing higher 

data-rate returns from future robotic and human 

missions to Mars and beyond.

Program Management

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of 

Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the 

project for the Technology Demonstration Missions 

program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission 

Directorate, and the Space Communications and 

Navigation (ScaN) program within the agency’s 

Space Operations Mission Directorate. JPL’s William 

“Bill” Klipstein is DSOC’s project manager and Abhijit 

“Abi” Biswas is the project technologist.

For more information about NASA’s DSOC 

technology demonstration go to:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/dsoc/

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

California Institute of Technology

Pasadena, California

www.nasa.gov

tween DSOC ground systems and the flight 

transceiver aboard Psyche.

• June 2024: First phase of this technology demonstration ends.

• January 2025: Second phase of the tech demo 

begins.

• October 2025: DSOC tech demo ends.

The System

Flight hardware: The DSOC flight laser transceiver 

will feature both a near-infrared laser transmitter 

to send high-rate data to the ground system, and 

a sensitive photon-counting camera to receive a 

ground-transmitted laser. The transceiver’s 8.6-inch 

(22-centimeter) aperture telescope is mounted on 

an isolation-and-pointing assembly that stabilizes 

the optics and isolates it from spacecraft vibrations. 

The flight hardware is fitted with a sunshade and 

protrudes from the side of the spacecraft, making it 

one of Psyche’s easily identifiable features.

Ground systems: A high-power near-infrared 

laser transmitter at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s 

Table Mountain facility near Wrightwood, California, 

will uplink a modulated laser beam to the flight 

transceiver and demonstrate the transmission of lowrate data. The uplink laser will also act as a beacon 

for the flight transceiver to lock onto. The data sent 

back by the DSOC transceiver on Psyche will be 

collected by the 200-inch (5.1-meter) Hale Telescope 

at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego 

County, California, using a sensitive superconducting 

nanowire photon-counting receiver to demonstrate 

high-rate data transfer.

History

Laser communications have already passed 

several key tests. In 2013, NASA’s Lunar Laser 

Communications Demonstration tested recordbreaking uplink and downlink data rates between 

Earth and the Moon. In 2021, NASA’s Laser 

Communications Relay Demonstration launched 

to test high-bandwidth optical communications 

from geostationary orbit and to demonstrate relay 

capabilities so that spacecraft don’t need to maintain 

a direct line of sight with Earth to communicate. In 

2022, NASA’s TeraByte InfraRed Delivery system 

Palomar Observatory’s Hale Telescope will receive the high-rate 

data downlink from the DSOC flight transceiver. Inset: A high-power near-infrared laser transmitter at JPL’s Table Mountain facility, 

shown, will transmit low-rate data to the transceiver. Credit: NASA/

JPL-Caltech/Palomar Observatory