NASA Laser Communications: Empowering More Data Than Ever Before

GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER ^ | 20 May 2021 | KATHERINE SCHAUER

[zeestephen]

Launching this summer, NASA's Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) will showcase the dynamic powers of laser communications technologies...Since the beginning of spaceflight in the 1950s, NASA missions have leveraged radio frequency communications to send data to and from space...Laser communications will enable 10 to 100 times more data transmitted back to Earth than current radio frequency systems.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

And will ensure that no one can listen in...like many do using RF receiving technology.

[blam]

Can you hear me now?

[Yossarian]

You can still listen in - just position a cluster of eavesdropping satellites behind the receiver.

I’m guessing the tightness of the beam will not be such that only the official receiver soaks up every last photon transmitted.

[corkoman]

Will that hurt when they shoot the message into my ear?

[IndispensableDestiny]

Shot a laser over a runway on an island in the Pacific. They didn't want RF because of potential interference with flight controls. Didn't want fiber or cable around the runway because reasons. Worked great except when the occasional big plane landed. We could handle the "blip" with buffering.

Lasers are good in space because there are no air molecules to refract the light. Still have to deal with the inverse square law.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Haha! Yes...but certainly a process a bit more onerous than firing up the old short wave. =;^)