The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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NASA's Psyche mission will explore the unique metal-rich asteroid of the same name that could be the exposed metal core of an early planet.
But Psyche also has a secondary mission. Riding along on the spacecraft is NASA JPL’s Deep Space Optical Communication (DSOC) experiment, which will test the use of lasers to transfer more data with distant spacecraft than is possible with the radio waves used today.
Using a narrow laser beam to communicate with a spacecraft half the Solar System away is a challenge at both an interplanetary and a quantum scale. But, if successful, the Psyche demonstration could open up a world of new possibilities for deep space missions of the future.
ESA is participating in Psyche's DSOC experiment. Click here to read more.