NASA’s Groundbreaking 4K Video Streamed Into Space
NASA Explores Faster Communication Technology for Space Missions
NASA, known for its groundbreaking contributions to space exploration, is now looking to revolutionize communication technology for its missions. While the space agency currently relies on radio waves to send and receive information, a new development using laser communications could significantly increase the speed of data transfer.
Laser communications utilize infrared light, which has the potential to transfer information 10 to 100 times faster than traditional radio waves. In a recent collaboration between Glenn engineers, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, a portable laser terminal was installed in the fuselage of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft.
During a test flight over Lake Erie, the aircraft successfully sent data to an optical ground station in Cleveland. The data was then transferred over a network on Earth to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, where scientists transmitted the information using infrared light signals to NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration platform.
The LCRD then relayed the signals to the ILLUMA-T payload on the International Space Station, which in turn sent data back to Earth. Throughout the experiments, the High-Speed Delay Tolerant Network system developed at Glenn helped the signal penetrate cloud cover more effectively.
Moving forward, researchers will continue testing the capabilities of 4K video streaming from the PC-12 aircraft throughout July. The ultimate goal of these efforts is to develop the necessary technologies to enable live broadcasts of future Artemis missions returning to the lunar surface.
This groundbreaking technology has the potential to transform the way NASA communicates during space missions, paving the way for faster and more efficient data transfer in the vast expanse of space.
