NASA launched its new Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) — the agency’s first-ever laser communications system — from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on December 7, 2021.
- The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) will help the agency test optical communication in space.
- Currently, most NASA spacecraft use radio frequency communications to send data. Optical communications will help increase the bandwidth 10 to 100 times more than radio frequency systems.
- LCRD has two optical terminals – one to receive data from a user spacecraft, and the other to transmit data to ground station.
- Using infrared lasers, LCRD will send data to Earth at 1.2 gigabits-per-second (Gbps). At this speed, it will take less than a minute to download a movie.
Why laser communication?
- According to NASA, laser communications will enable 10 to 100 times more data transmitted back to Earth than current radio frequency systems.
- It would take roughly nine weeks to transmit a complete map of Mars back to Earth with current radio frequency systems. With lasers, it would take about nine days.
- Additionally, laser communications systems are ideal for missions because they need less volume, weight, and power. Less mass means more room for science instruments, and less power means less of a drain of spacecraft power systems. These are all critically important considerations for NASA when designing and developing mission concepts.
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