NASA's Laser Communications System Will Enable High-Speed Transmissions From Mars
Clay Dillow
at 02:59 AM Aug 25 2011
NASA's Laser Communications System Will Enable High-Speed Transmissions From Mars
Mars will be laser-equipped to shoot at Earth. High-res pics only... for now.
AAO
Space // 

NASA is spending roughly US$175 million on three new technology demonstration projects, one of which is aiming to take HD data streaming to Mars. The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) will explore reliable optical communications technologies that could boost data rates between Earth and deep space by a couple of orders of magnitude.

The premise is simple enough: for the same mass, size, and power load an optical communications system can provide drastically higher data rates compared to standard radio frequency (RF) systems. But it also calls for a trickier setup, requiring a clear line of sight between transmitter and receiver and considerations for variables like weather and atmospheric conditions.

The LCRD aims to demonstrate that a near earth space terminal (in this case a satellite owned by Loral Space & Communications, a partner in the project) can maintain optical communications with ground stations on Earth (one existing station in California and a couple more that will be built) and to test workarounds for problems that engineers foresee, like the afore mentioned weather problem.

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