NASA Laser Beams 'Hello, World!' Video From Space
Because the space station orbits Earth at 28,163 kph, transmitting data from the space station to Earth requires extremely precise targeting.
The process can be equated to a person aiming a laser pointer at the end of a human hair 30 feet away and keeping it there while walking.
To achieve this extreme precision during the demonstration, OPALS locked onto a laser beacon emitted by the Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory ground station at the Table Mountain Observatory in Wrightwood, California, and began to modulate the beam from its 2.5-watt, 1,550-nanometre laser to transmit the video.
The entire transmission lasted 148 seconds and reached a maximum data transmission rate of 50 megabits per second.
OPALS arrived at the space station on April 20 aboard SpaceX's robotic Dragon capsule during the company's third contracted cargo run to the orbiting lab for NASA.
The instrument is scheduled to operate for a prime mission lifetime of 90 days.
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