NASA Shoots Lasers at the Moon to Create Insanely Fast Internet

NASA has set a new record for communication in space, beaming information to and from a probe named LADEE that is currently flying around the moon 380,000 kilometers away.

Aboard LADEE is the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD), which achieved super-fast download speeds of 622 megabits per second (Mbps) and an upload rate of 20 Mbps. In comparison, the internet at WIRED’s office in San Francisco gets download rates of 75 Mbps and uploads at 50 Mbps. NASA’s typical communications with the moon are about five times slower than what LLCD provided.

Until now, NASA has used radio waves to communicate with its spacecraft out in the solar system. As a probe gets farther away, you need more power to transmit a signal. Earth-based receiving dishes have to be bigger, too, so that NASA’s most-distant probe, Voyager 1, relies on a 70-meter antenna to be heard. LLCD relies on three ground-based terminals at telescopes in New Mexico, California, and Spain to communicate.

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I think this was in some sci-fi movies I have seen.

So eventually they are going to set up a laser communication satellite to be a relay with other craft further out in space probably deep space probes. If it was earth based then they would be at the mercy of atmosphere conditions. This is just one step in a much bigger goal.

Hey maybe one day we will use this to beam line of site internet around the world.

NASA has come up with some pretty cool useful stuff in the past this may be one for the future.

622 megabits per second (Mbps)

WOggghhhh Cool..with that speed i can Download Movie as much i like?
COOL Stuff! Hope This technology use for Kindness
SnF Mr!!

Grimpachi
Aboard LADEE is the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD), which achieved super-fast download speeds of 622 megabits per second (Mbps) ...

I see for this result that they've completely ignored the 2 and half second ping round trip times.

Its really quick, but also really slow.

alfa1

Grimpachi
Aboard LADEE is the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD), which achieved super-fast download speeds of 622 megabits per second (Mbps) ...

I see for this result that they've completely ignored the 2 and half second ping round trip times.

Its really quick, but also really slow.

If I lived on the moon and had to wait 2 seconds before "Iron Sky" on Netflix loaded -- I'd be OK with that!

I think this technology has a lot of potential for communications when/if we send people back to the Moon or Mars. Despite the latency, the bandwidth allows for much larger data packets to be sent.

alfa1

Grimpachi
Aboard LADEE is the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD), which achieved super-fast download speeds of 622 megabits per second (Mbps) ...

I see for this result that they've completely ignored the 2 and half second ping round trip times.

Its really quick, but also really slow.

its better than what it is now.. instead of waiting days or weeks for data collected from probes or images it will be much much faster.

Wooo pee, now they can tell the orbiting probe to take a picture two weeks from now in microseconds.

reply to post by alfa1


Ping just checks round trip time and reachability, you mean the latency (which the ping measures/round trip time).

About 2.5 seconds to the moon and back...not great in Earth standards, but not bad either.....not like the 20 or so minutes (depending on distance) it takes for Mars.

alfa1

Grimpachi
Aboard LADEE is the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD), which achieved super-fast download speeds of 622 megabits per second (Mbps) ...

I see for this result that they've completely ignored the 2 and half second ping round trip times.

Its really quick, but also really slow.

Since light only travels, 299 792 458 m / s2, I'd say they are doing pretty good for the distance involved.

wiki.answers.com...

While communicating at STM-4 with a probe may seem fast, it isn't even close to the potential of optical communication. Since the communication is one on one, the speed does not need to be split up so the full potential can be used.

I bet STM-4 is just a proof of concept. Don't be surprised when they pump it up to STM-64 (~10Gb/s) or higher, in the very near future. How about a Full HD-3D live stream coming from a rover.

Bring it on!

Didn't those nerds in Big Bang Theory perform this exact same experiment?

Maybe NASA needs to give the script writers some royalty payments.

boncho

alfa1

Grimpachi
Aboard LADEE is the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD), which achieved super-fast download speeds of 622 megabits per second (Mbps) ...

I see for this result that they've completely ignored the 2 and half second ping round trip times.

Its really quick, but also really slow.

Since light only travels, 299 792 458 m / s2, I'd say they are doing pretty good for the distance involved.

wiki.answers.com...

What's S2?

So they can get this bandwidth to the moon and back, and wired can get fast connections, how come I can't? (Rhetorical).

The idea of using a "focused" beam to communicate makes sense, but it requires good aim, compared to less directional communication technologies.

Arbitrageur

boncho

alfa1

Grimpachi
Aboard LADEE is the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD), which achieved super-fast download speeds of 622 megabits per second (Mbps) ...

I see for this result that they've completely ignored the 2 and half second ping round trip times.

Its really quick, but also really slow.

Since light only travels, 299 792 458 m / s2, I'd say they are doing pretty good for the distance involved.

wiki.answers.com...

What's S2?

So they can get this bandwidth to the moon and back, and wired can get fast connections, how come I can't? (Rhetorical).

The idea of using a "focused" beam to communicate makes sense, but it requires good aim, compared to less directional communication technologies.

edit on 25-10-2013 by Arbitrageur because: clarification

What's S2?

A really long second?

So they can get this bandwidth to the moon and back, and wired can get fast connections, how come I can't? (Rhetorical).

Cause you don't have fibre optics like yours truly.

The idea of using a "focused" beam to communicate makes sense, but it requires good aim, compared to less directional communication technologies.

Worse case scenario is Alpha Centuri gets some useless moon data in a few years. Oh well.

reply to post by alfa1


It sure does kill some online gaming with lag like that going on ...but the download time on a video library sure can't be beat.

I'll take the loss of gaming to be able to download a few movies in a matter of minutes. Sounds like a fair trade off to me.

Aside from that, who wants to play space invaders while living on the moon anyway?

D.Wolf
I bet STM-4 is just a proof of concept. Don't be surprised when they pump it up to STM-64 (~10Gb/s) or higher, in the very near future. How about a Full HD-3D live stream coming from a rover.

Bring it on!

Now that's cooking! I've never thought of a HD-3D live stream from a Mars Rover, and now I want to see it right now!