Matthew Nelson
CACI International has handed over to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory a laser communications transmitter designed to send data across 200 million miles at optimized speeds.
NASA will incorporate the transmitter into the Psyche spacecraft as a component of the vehicle's Deep Space Optical Communications package to transmit data from an asteroid belt in photon packet form, the company said Monday.
A team of engineers tested the transmitter's capacity to withstand flight and space launch prior to the delivery of the device's engineering model in November.
NASA seeks to explore the origin of planetary cores in the asteroid belt through the spacecraft as well as to assess the possibility of enabling deep space communications using laser technology.
"CACI is excited to support this NASA deep space mission with fast and reliable communications, and is ready to deliver advanced laser-based technologies to other space, aerial and terrestrial missions to come," said John Mengucci, president and CEO of CACI and a 2020 Wash100 winner.
The company is currently working on various laser communications platforms to support five NASA space hardware programs.
