An Internet Wi-Fi system for the moon is significantly faster than home connections here on Earth.
The Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) uses lasers to send Internet service around 239,000 miles from the Earth hto our lunar companion. Investigators were able to upload data at top speeds over 19 megabytes per second (Mbps), and download information at 600 Mbps. This would allow users on the lunar surface to copy more than 100 average songs every second.
NASA uses radio waves to carry data to and from satellites, observatories and the International Space Station. As the need to transmit vast quantities of data becomes more common, this method of communication is less able to meet demands. Photographs and videos can already be transmitted on the test system, and developers are hoping to accommodate streaming video soon. However, NASA is due to present the results of the tests on June 9.
The experiments will be detailed at the CLEO: 2014 technical conference to be held in San Jose, Calif., from June 8-13. The presentation will be given by NASA researchers along with investigators from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who participated in the experiments.
"Communicating at high data rates from Earth to the moon with laser beams is challenging because of the 400,000-kilometer distance spreading out the light beam. It's doubly difficult going through the atmosphere, because turbulence can bend light, causing rapid fading or dropouts of the signal at the receiver," Mark Stevens from MIT said.
Several techniques are used to clear the data, including using four tiny telescopes in New Mexico to capture the data. Using this number of receivers gives each six-inch telescope a better chance of catching the signal.
Similar tests to this latest round were performed on the LLCD system late last year, yielding similar results.
"LLCD is the first step on our road map toward building the next generation of space communication capability. We are encouraged by the results of the demonstration to this point, and we are confident we are on the right path to introduce this new capability into operational service soon," Badri Younes from NASA's space communications and navigation (SCaN) office in Washington said after those experiments.
Ultrafast data communication systems could be used to transmit observations from distant spacecraft. This would allow deep-space observatories to use cameras with higher definitions than would otherwise be possible. Surfaces of planets and satellites would be revealed in greater detail, perhaps leading to discoveries that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.
The LLCD will be succeeded by the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), due for launch in 2017.
