in the beginning, NASA I used laser Communication Technology To send 4K Video Flows from plane to international space A US spacecraft has successfully reached and returned from the International Space Station (ISS), an achievement that is part of a series of tests on a new technology that could provide live video coverage to astronauts on the moon during America’s Artemis missions.
Historically, NASA has relied on radio waves to send information to and from space. Laser communications use infrared light to transmit data 10 to 100 times faster than radio frequency systems.
Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research Program, engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland temporarily installed a portable laser station on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12. They then flew over Lake Erie and beamed data from the plane to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent via a ground network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to transmit the data.
The signals traveled 22,000 miles from Earth to NASA’s Laser Communications Relay (LCRD) Experimental Platform. The LCRD then relayed the signals to the ILLUMA-T payload mounted on the orbiting laboratory, which then sent the data back to Earth. During the experiments, High-Speed Delay-Tolerant Networks (HDTN), a new system developed at Glenn, helped the signals penetrate cloud cover more effectively.
“These experiments represent a tremendous achievement,” said Dr. Daniel Raible, HDTN principal investigator at Glenn. “We can now build on the success of 4K HD video transmission to and from the space station to provide future capabilities, such as high-definition video conferencing, for Artemis astronauts, which will be important for crew health and coordination of activities.”
The flights were part of the agency’s initiative to beam high-bandwidth video and other data from deep space, enabling future human missions beyond low-Earth orbit. As NASA continues to develop advanced scientific instruments to capture high-resolution data on the Moon and beyond, the agency’s Space Communications and Navigation Program is embracing laser communications to send large amounts of information back to Earth.
Historically, NASA has relied on radio waves to send information to and from space. Laser communications use infrared light to transmit data 10 to 100 times faster than radio frequency systems.
Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research Program, engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland temporarily installed a portable laser station on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12. They then flew over Lake Erie and beamed data from the plane to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent via a ground network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to transmit the data.
The signals traveled 22,000 miles from Earth to NASA’s Laser Communications Relay (LCRD) Experimental Platform. The LCRD then relayed the signals to the ILLUMA-T payload mounted on the orbiting laboratory, which then sent the data back to Earth. During the experiments, High-Speed Delay-Tolerant Networks (HDTN), a new system developed at Glenn, helped the signals penetrate cloud cover more effectively.
“These experiments represent a tremendous achievement,” said Dr. Daniel Raible, HDTN principal investigator at Glenn. “We can now build on the success of 4K HD video transmission to and from the space station to provide future capabilities, such as high-definition video conferencing, for Artemis astronauts, which will be important for crew health and coordination of activities.”
The flights were part of the agency’s initiative to beam high-bandwidth video and other data from deep space, enabling future human missions beyond low-Earth orbit. As NASA continues to develop advanced scientific instruments to capture high-resolution data on the Moon and beyond, the agency’s Space Communications and Navigation Program is embracing laser communications to send large amounts of information back to Earth.
