(GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER) NASA’s Psyche spacecraft

(JANUARY-2024)

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft

• Recently, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, currently over 16 million kilometres away in space, successfully fired a laser signal at Earth.

Key details

• The spacecraft is on its way to a unique metal-rich asteroid, orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.
• Simultaneously, it will also carry out another mission that might hold the key to future space exploration.

How communication in space takes place

• Communicating with spacecraft far away from Earth poses many challenges, of which the problem of data rates might be the most critical.
• Most space communication is carried out using radio waves — having the highest wave lengths but lowest frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum.
• This is primarily because of their desirable propagation properties, stemming from their large wavelength.
• They have the ability to pass through the atmosphere regardless of weather, pass through foliage and most building materials, as well as bend around obstructions.

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Courtesy: Science Reporter