NASA Set To Test New Space Laser Communication Systems

How laser communications improve space discoveries

Using laser communications will vastly improve the way data is transmitted back to Earth, accelerating the entire process, and transferring between 10 to 100 times more data than current radio frequency systems. To put that into perspective, it currently takes around nine weeks for a map of Mars to be transmitted down to Earth, but with laser communications, this time would be minimized down to nine days.

Aside from faster communications, the systems would also assist missions as they require less volume, weight, and power. This means there would be more space for scientific instruments to be sent to space, and less power would be drained from the spacecraft.

Ultimately, the goal is to increase the transmission process to enable more discoveries, explains NASA.

"LCRD will demonstrate all of the advantages of using laser systems and allow us to learn how to use them best operationally," said Principal Investigator David Israel at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

"With this capability further proven, we can start to implement laser communications on more missions, making it a standardized way to send and receive data."

This year's LCRD mission will start by testing laser communications capabilities and using the mission's ground bases in California and Hawai'i for its simulations. 

Laser communications

This isn't the first mention of using laser communications for faster and better communications systems. For instance, Airbus wants to use lasers to connect people in planes to the internet, SpaceX added lasers to link some of its Starlink internet satellites for better communication, Japan launched a new relay laser satellite as a payload, and early last year, NASA was already working on its laser communications system to connect future Mars astronauts with Earth. 

It's clear to see that using lasers for communication and data transfers will become the new norm in a few years' time, and NASA is paving the way starting this summer.