Record in communication by laser beam between Earth and space

Laser communication stores information in the oscillations of light waves from laser beams.

Currently, the most widely used technology for space communications is based on radio waves. Transmissions are made in ways not unlike how radio broadcasts are sent to a receiver in a car or how a cell phone communicates with a cell tower. With more ambitious targets for human activity in space, such as NASA’s plans to establish a habitable base on the Moon and send astronauts to Mars, more efficient communications are essential for smooth mission operations. and the collection of scientific information is as effective as possible.

The ultra-high-speed capabilities of laser communications, also known as optical communications, will allow more data to be stored with each transmission from space.

NASA and other partners recently achieved a milestone on the road to space laser communications: achieving a throughput of 200 gigabits per second (Gbps) on a laser link between Earth and an Earth-orbiting satellite. This is the highest data transmission speed ever achieved in this kind of technology.

This communications link was achieved by the TBIRD (TeraByte InfraRed Delivery) system, put into orbit by NASA’s PTD-3 (Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator 3) satellite, and exceeds the previous record of 100 Gbps previously achieved by the same team in June 2022. With this fast connection, TBIRD can send several terabytes of data to Earth in a single six-minute pass over the catchment area of ​​a ground station. A single terabyte is equivalent to about 500 hours of high-definition video.

Wireless laser communications allow, among other things, more data to be sent to Earth from a spacecraft, compared to traditional systems based on radio waves, at least over the distances tested so far with the available technology. (Image: NASA)

“Reaching 100 Gbps in June of last year was revolutionary, and now we’ve doubled that data rate. This capability will change the way we communicate in space,” said Beth Keer, TBIRD mission manager at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

CubeSats like the PTD-3 are ideal spacecraft for testing communications technologies due to their low cost and small size. PTD-3 is about the size of two stacked cereal boxes, and the TBIRD payload it carries is no larger than a typical tissue box. PTD-3 was built and is operated by Terran Orbital of Irvine, California, United States, for NASA. The TBIRD payload was designed and built by the Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. (Fountain: NCYT by Amazings)