NASA’s new laser technology is finally confined to space. After much anticipation and a two-year delay, the Laser Media Relay Demonstration (LCRD) kicked off today (December 8) at 5:19 a.m. EST. According to NASA’s social media updates, the LCRD was launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. NASA also explains why this new technology is important. It said, “LCRD will introduce the unique capabilities of optical communications, increasing bandwidth for data transmission in space while reducing size, weight and power requirements.”
LCRD is part of the Space Test Program 3 mission, which is a joint venture between the United States Space Force and NASA. “This new way of communicating with spacecraft could broaden the possibilities for what we can learn from future missions to the solar system,” NASA wrote in a blog post. Instagram.
This laser communication technology is also known as optical communication because it uses infrared light to send information. According to NASA, the technology provides “higher data rates than traditional radio frequency systems.” The higher data rates will allow the space agency to send more data in each transmission, which makes it a faster way of space communication.
The LCRD will begin operations in a geosynchronous orbit about 22,000 miles from Earth. From there, it will establish space-to-ground laser communications with ground stations based in Hawaii and California. Scientists have further plans for laser communication technology. The caption on the Instagram post reads: “Later on its mission, the LCRD will receive and transmit data from an optical terminal that we will place on the International Space Station.”
A few days ago, NASA stated that technology will allow them to send 10-100 times more data than radio frequencies. It will also prevent the overload of the radio frequency spectrum, which has occurred over the past few decades. This problem increases as constellations of satellites in low Earth orbit rapidly increase.
In a previous notification, NASA is sure that delaying the mission will not cause too many bad effects. In fact, investigators believe that the LCRD was perfectly planned to benefit the Artemis Manned Moon landing mission, scheduled for 2025.
