Nasa's Laser Moon Mission To Boost Space Communication


Operationally, LLCD demonstrated the ability to download data from the LADEE spacecraft itself.

"We were able to download LADEE's entire stored science and spacecraft data (one gigabyte) in less than five minutes, which was only limited to our 40 Mbps connection to that data within LADEE," said Cornwell.

Using LADEE's onboard radio system would take several days to complete a download of the same stored data.

Additionally, LLCD was to prove the integrity of laser technology to send not only error-free data but also uncorrupted commands and telemetry or monitoring messages to and from the spacecraft over the laser link.

LLCD also demonstrated the ability to "hand-off" the laser connection from one ground station to another, just as a cellphone does a hand-off from one cell tower to another.

An additional achievement was the ability to operate LLCD without using LADEE's radio at all.

"We were able to program LADEE to awaken the LLCD space terminal and have it automatically point and communicate to the ground station at a specific time without radio commands. This demonstrates that this technology could serve as the primary communications system for future Nasa missions," said Cornwell.

The ability of LLCD to send and receive high definition video was proven with a message from Nasa Administrator Charlie Bolden, completing the trip to the Moon and back with only a few seconds of delay.

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Source: PTI