NASA launches laser communication relay demonstration mission this year

According to foreign media, NASA has a mission called Laser Communication Relay Demonstration this summer to demonstrate the capabilities of laser communication technology. NASA said that with the increasing presence of robots and humans in space, missions can benefit from new ways of communicating with the Earth. Since the 1950s, NASA has been using radio frequency communications to send data to space.

Atmospheric laser communication is a type of wireless communication. It uses optical signals as a carrier for transmitting information and transmits it directly in the atmosphere. Because it is wireless communication, it can move to any place at will and realize mobile communication. In terms of concept, the atmospheric transmission optical line is very simple, that is, the laser beam can be emitted to the receiver by the transmitter. However, in actual atmospheric transmission, the narrow beam of the laser has high requirements for correct reception, so the system should also include an active alignment device. In the space transmission, the laser system must have a strong ability to eliminate stray light, otherwise the sun or other light sources will sink the laser beam. In practice, it is necessary to add a narrow-pass filter, you can choose to receive the laser wavelength and block other wavelengths.

NASA said that the use of laser communications will enable 10 to 100 times more data sent back to Earth than the current radio frequency system can support. Currently, it takes about 9 weeks to send a complete map of Mars back to Earth using a radio frequency system. If NASA used laser communication to send the same data, it would only take about 9 days.

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