NASA's Psyche mission

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.