Can you NIR me now?

Since the Guinness Book of World Records was first published in 1955, breaking records has become a fascination among certain people. Some World Records might seem frivolous, such as the record for the most couples to simultaneously share a strand of spaghetti (465), or the record for the longest hopscotch game (23,088 ft, 11.3 in.). Though frivolous, these records are no small feat to beat, much less surpass.

But if there were ever a hardest record to top, it might very well go to NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, which recently threw down the gauntlet for the longest distance laser communication ever made — in this solar system, anyway.

The spacecraft, which is currently ~16 million km (10 million miles) from Earth, was able to beam a near-infrared (NIR) laser encoded with test data to the California Institute of Technology’s (Caltech’s) Hale Telescope at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego. Notably, the technology has the potential to demonstrate data transmission rates that are 10 to 100× greater than the radio frequency communications currently used. But laser-enabled phone conversations will be a little awkward at this distance: It took Psyche’s signal 50 s to reach its listeners in San Diego.

This call happened as courtesy of NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment helmed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is also managing Psyche’s research mission. Taking the form of bits, the data was transferred via encoded photons that were detected by a superconducting high-efficiency detector array.

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To connect the DSOC laser to its Earth-bound audience, JPL’s Table Mountain Facility near Wrightwood, Calif., sent an uplink laser beacon to Psyche. The spacecraft then used that information to fine-tune its position until it was able to accurately target its downlink laser back at Palomar.

This demonstration gives researchers a glimpse of how to make stable and high-speed communication between humans on Earth and, say, Mars more feasible.

The DSOC has no intention of resting on its laurels. The experiment’s objectives are far from over.

The spacecraft is slated to break records again with subsequent tests, and eventually demonstrate a data uplink of one astronomical unit — that is, 93 million miles, or the average distance between Earth and the sun. At that distance, it will take 8.3 min for data to send and receive.

Ultimately, Psyche will dial in to its longest distance call from ~223.7 million miles away, from which it will take 20 min for its greeting to reach Earth.

So, while NASA and JPL are on a mission to keep one-upping themselves with deep space laser communications, the rest of us Earthlings will struggle for fame by adding one more length of spaghetti or hopscotch square to the latest world record.