NASA has launched a revolutionary mission to test laser communication in space, which can provide a faster and more reliable data transfer between satellites, the International Space Station (ISS) and Earth.
The mission called Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), or a demonstration of laser communication retransplant, uses infrared lasers to encode and transfer information to land and from the ground at a speed of 1.2 gigabits per second. This is 10-100 times faster than traditional radio frequency systems that are used for space communication from the very beginning of space development.
Laser communication has several advantages over radio frequency communications, such as large throughput, lower power consumption, lower size and weight of the equipment, as well as increased safety and confidentiality of the transmitted data.
LCRD is installed on the STPSAT-6 satellite, which was launched into geostationary orbit on December 5, 2021, by the Atlas V rocket from the Cosmodrome at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The satellite also carries other scientific and technological experiments for the US Department of Defense.
LCRD will test laser communication between two satellites and between the ISS and the Earth. To do this, it will use two optical terminals that can align and maintain the exact direction of laser rays at a distance of thousands of kilometers. It will also use two radio frequency terminals for reserve communications in the case of adverse weather conditions or other interference.
LCRD is the world’s first NASA laser relaying system, which is designed to prove the viability and efficiency of the use of laser communications for future space missions. NASA plans to use laser communication to transmit more data from scientific devices studying the moon, Mars, and other objects of the solar system.