NASA is going to create the high-speed internet of space. They are going to need a very fast internet in the sky to communicate to the astronauts and other spacecraft in space.
NASA will work together with the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) to create better laser communications system that is like a high-speed internet. The two agencies will be making history as they will create the highest, fastest internet of all time to connect the spacecraft in space and its controlling booths here on Earth. They will also have a bigger data space for scientific data downlink and faster communication system with the astronaut, Phys.org reported.
Near-Earth and deep space explorations will be better and faster with this new technology, the high-speed internet, that LCRD is making. "This technology has the potential to revolutionize space communications, and we are excited to partner with the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate's Space Communications and Navigation program office, MIT Lincoln Labs and the U.S. Air Force on this effort," said Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, which leads the LCRD project.
NASA is going to learn many things about high-speed internet in laser communications or optical communications from LCRD. The new technology that LCRD is offering and will give NASA is going to make the mission to Mars easier and faster. NASA is currently using radio-frequency (RF) communications systems and it is slower and bigger than the laser communications. The optical communications encode data onto a beam of light that is transferred to the spacecraft and then to Earth NASA offices, according to NASA themselves. Not only it will be fast but laser communications require less power and energy and smaller space in a spacecraft.
There are many known things about the radio-frequency communications, unlike the laser communications. LCRD will test the optical communication systems through different weather conditions first to know if they will really work in space and on Mars. It will let the high-speed internet like technology to experience extreme weather like on Mars first before trying it in NASA and putting an office in the Space Launch for the upcoming Mars mission.
