NASA Develops Laser Satellite / Rover Communication System

Currently, NASA is in the process of implementing a very interesting project, the purpose of which is to create a “wide” (of course, fast) communication channel for transferring data from spacecraft / rover / lunar rover to Earth and back. If everything goes well, then Earth scientists will be able to receive high-quality images of the cosmos and other planets, HD video and stereoscopic "pictures" of the most interesting objects.

In this case, the data are supposed to be transmitted using an infrared laser, which can significantly increase the channel capacity between spacecraft and the Earth. Probably, the new communication channel will be about 6 times faster than what is used now. The data will be transmitted by the LADEE spacecraft to Earth.
')
Of course, the technical implementation of this project is very complicated. But engineers and scientists hope that everything will go well, and after the completion of the project, science will receive very valuable images, videos and other data, so necessary for modern specialists.

The download / upload ratio in this case will be 622 / 20mbps.

Here is a video from NASA dedicated to this project:



Via theverge