Conventionally, sending messages across great distances in space has been unsophisticated at best, using traditional radio signals. These signals are slow and broad, meaning it takes a long time to receive the messages and pretty much anyone can pick them up and listen in, but that’s all about to change.
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00:00conventionally sending messages across great distances in space has been unsophisticated
00:09at best using traditional radio signals these signals are slow and broad meaning it takes a
00:14long time to receive the messages and pretty much anyone can pick them up and listen in
00:18but that's all about to change nasa has been working on a more direct laser communication
00:22method for a while and they recently had a successful test they sent a message over a
00:27distance of 10 million miles that's around 40 times the distance of the earth to the moon
00:32the laser signals were sent between nasa's mission command on our planet and the psyche spacecraft one
00:37currently hurtling towards the asteroid belt between jupiter and mars they're calling the test first
00:42light and it was all part of the space agency's deep space optical communications or dsoc by
00:48transmitting messages through infrared light not only do they move across space much quicker but
00:52because the message is kept tighter it needs less energy to reach its destination and because the
00:57beam is less scattered it is also far more difficult to intercept nasa is expected to continue testing
01:02its new optical laser messaging system as psyche takes a lap around mars but soon this might become
01:07the norm with regards to cosmic communications
01:10you
01:14you