Ledes from the Land of Enchantment

NASA is about to start a laser demo that could revolutionize space communications

Posted by Ashley Strickland, CNN

(CNN) – Using invisible lasers in space may sound like science fiction, but it’s real.

NASA’s upcoming laser communication relay demonstration could revolutionize the way the agency communicates with future missions across the solar system.

These lasers could lead to more high-resolution videos and photos from space than ever before, according to the agency.

The mission is scheduled to launch on December 5 as a payload aboard the Department of Defense’s Space Test Program Satellite 6 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch window will remain open from 4:04 a.m. to 6:04 p.m. ET, and the agency will share live coverage of the launch on NASA TV and its website.

NASA has been using radio waves since 1958 to communicate with its astronauts and space missions. While radio waves have a proven track record, space missions are becoming more complex and collecting more data than before.

Think of infrared lasers as the optical communications version of high-speed Internet as opposed to the frustratingly slow dial-up Internet. Laser communication will send data to Earth from orbit in sync with the Earth’s rotation 22,000 miles (35,406 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface at 1.2 gigabits per second, which is like downloading an entire movie in less than a minute.

This makes data transfer rates 10 to 100 times faster than radio waves. Infrared lasers, which are invisible to our eyes, have shorter wavelengths than radio waves, so they can transmit more data at once.

With the current radio wave system, it would take nine weeks to send back a full map of Mars – but lasers could do this in nine days.

The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration is NASA’s first end-to-end laser relay system to send and receive data from space at two optical ground stations in Table Mountain, California and Haleakalā, Hawaii. These stations have telescopes that can receive the light from the lasers and convert it into digital data. In contrast to radio antennas, laser communication receivers can be up to 44 times smaller. Since the satellite can both send and receive data, it is a true two-way system.

The only disruption to these ground-based laser receivers is atmospheric disturbances such as clouds and turbulence, which can disrupt laser signals traveling through our atmosphere. The remote locations for the two receivers were chosen with this in mind, as both typically have clear weather conditions at high altitudes.

Once the mission is in orbit, the Las Cruces, New Mexico Operations Center team will activate and prepare the laser communication relay demonstration to send tests to the ground stations.

The mission is expected to conduct tests and experiments for two years before supporting space missions, including an optical terminal that will be installed on the International Space Station in the future. It will be able to send data from scientific experiments on the space station to the satellite, which will send it back to Earth.

The demonstration acts as a relay satellite, eliminating the need for antennas with a direct line of sight to earth for future missions. The satellite could help reduce the size, weight and energy requirements for communications on future spacecraft – although this mission is about the size of a king’s mattress.

This means that future missions could be started more cheaply and would leave room for more scientific instruments.

Other missions currently under development that could test laser communication skills include the Orion Artemis II optical communication system, which will enable ultra-high definition video transmission between NASA and Artemis astronauts venturing to the moon.

And the Psyche mission, which starts in 2022, will reach its asteroid target in 2026. The mission will examine a metallic asteroid more than 150 million kilometers away and test its deep space optical communication laser to send data back to Earth.

The CNN Wire
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