NASA to launch LCRD mission in Dec. to test laser for faster communcations in space

NASA has resumed the launch preparations of its Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) mission which will use laser communications systems to transmit data from space to Earth. The mission has been resumed after undergoing over two-year-long delay and is now expected to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, as per Space.com. Until now, NASA has used radio frequency systems to communicate with astronauts and spacecraft, however, the piling up of data is prompting the agency to adopt a more efficient and faster way of communication.

LCRD will allow data transfer at 1.2 Gbps

Scientists through the LCRD satellite will leverage the power of laser communications, which uses infrared light rather than radio waves, to encode and transmit information to and from Earth. Although both radio waves and laser infrared light waves are forms of electromagnetic radiation, the latter is much beneficial as it occurs at a much higher frequency, allowing engineers to pack more data into each transmission. NASA says, that using infrared lasers, LCRD will send data to Earth from geosynchronous orbit at 1.2 gigabits-per-second (Gbps), which is enough to download a full movie in under one minute.

Explaining more advantages of lasers over radio waves, the agency revealed that spacecraft will be able to send back more data at once in a single download. It is this advantage of laser communications, owing to which space industries are creating more missions that use lasers to complement radiofrequency satellites. Talking about its first-ever laser communications system, NASA said, "LCRD is a relay satellite with many highly sensitive components that provide increased communications. As a relay, LCRD removes the need for user missions to have direct line-of-sight to antennas on Earth".

The satellite will relay the data to two of its ground stations located in California and Hawaii that are each equipped with telescopes to receive the light and modems to translate the encoded light back into digital data. Space.com reports, that the demonstration will travel to a maximum distance of 35,786 kilometres, to the geosynchronous orbit and will be tested for at least two years.

Image: NASA