Communications of the ACM
Nasa Plans Laser Communications in Space
An artist's rendering of a satellite optical communication system.
Credit: NASA
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is exploring the use of laser communications in space.
After completing a successful communications test in January using laser pulses, NASA recently announced plans to invest in the technology over the next four years.
According to NASA's recently released strategic space technology investment plan, the optical communication systems would send data and information in the same signals currently used to track the locations of satellites and other objects.
NASA plans to launch the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer in May, and it will use lasers instead of radio waves to communicate its location and collected information with Earth.
Further tests are planned, but the near-term plans are to use lasers as a backup for radio communications satellites. However, NASA believes optical communication will eventually outpace the data speeds of radio.
NASA says laser communications could offer a tenfold to a thousandfold increase in communication speeds over radio.
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