In A First, NASA Uses Laser Communication To Stream 4K Video From Aircraft To Space Station
In the past, NASA was dependent on radio waves to transmit information, however, this new laser technology has the potential to transfer 10 to 100 times more data than radio frequency systems.
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s Glenn Research Centre in Cleveland streamed a 4K video from an aircraft to the International Space Station (ISS). This milestone achievement in the realm of space was possible with the use of laser communication.
The test was performed to determine whether the technology is reliable to provide live coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions.
In the past, the space agency was dependent on radio waves to transmit information, however, this new laser technology has the potential to transfer 10 to 100 times more data than radio frequency systems.
"We can now build upon the success of streaming 4K HD videos to and from the space station to provide future capabilities, like HD videoconferencing, for our Artemis astronauts, which will be important for crew health and activity coordination," said Dr Daniel Raible, principal investigator for the HDTN project at Glenn.
Glenn engineers installed a portable laser terminal temporarily on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. The aircraft flew over Lake Erie and the data was sent to the ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA's White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data.
The signals successfully travelled about 22,000 miles between Earth and NASA's orbiting experimental platform, Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD). The LCRD then transmitted the signals to the ILLUMA-T (Integrated LCRD LEO User Modem and Amplifier Terminal) payload mounted on the orbiting laboratory, which then sent data back to Earth.
High-Rate Delay Tolerant Networking (HDTN), a new system developed at Glenn, helped the signal penetrate cloud coverage more effectively.
"While the ILLUMA-T payload is no longer installed on the space station, researchers will continue to test 4K video streaming capabilities from the PC-12 aircraft through the remainder of July, with the goal of developing the technologies needed to stream humanity's return to the lunar surface through Artemis," NASA said.
The US space agency initiated flight tests to stream high-bandwidth video and other data from deep space, enabling future human missions beyond low Earth orbit.
