How Far Can NASA’s New Laser Message Reach? Here’s the Distance.mp4

Amaze Lab

The problem with radio communication is that as the receiver gets further and further away, not only does it take longer to receive messages, but the message also gets much weaker. Which is why NASA is working on sending those very same communications using lasers and they recently had their most successful test yet.

Transcript

00:00right now radio communications are well exactly that transmission sent via radio signals the

00:09problem with those is that as the receiver gets further and further away not only does it take

00:13longer to receive messages but the message also gets much weaker which is why nasa is working

00:18on sending those very same communications using lasers and they recently had their most successful

00:24test yet the test is all in preparation of an eventual mars mission which current radio

00:29communications take between four minutes and 24 minutes for a one-way message and those video

00:34image and other types of messages are quite low resolution but late last year nasa tested their

00:39optical transmission system and they were able to send a message some 10 million miles that's 40

00:45times the distance of the earth to the moon and around a third of the distance of us to mars the

00:49transmission came from a telescope on our planet and was received by the psyche spacecraft one

00:54currently heading to the main asteroid belt between mars and jupiter they're calling this transmission

00:59first light and they say this is a milestone in higher data rate communications the whole thing

01:04took just 50 seconds one way which trudy cortez says will eventually allow the streaming of scientific

01:10information high definition imagery and video across great distances

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