Nasa's lasercom technology could speed up connection speeds across the solar system by 100 times
Next time you're moaning about your sluggish broadband connection, spare a thought for Nasa. The US space agency currently relies on radio broadcasts to transmit information across the solar system and beyond, which not only uses a lot of power but makes for slow transfer speeds. The current connection with Mars, for example, can send data at a rate of only around 6Mbps: the same as the average broadband connection in the UK, and you don't have to share it with a whole planet.
Now Nasa has announced a long-overdue upgrade. It will be testing a new system of sending signals via lasers instead of radio – the space equivalent of using fibre-optic cables. Sending a pulse of laser not only requires less power, but it can carry more information. This lasercom technology should be ready to launch by 2015 and will increase speeds by up to 100 times, which certainly puts the 14% of Britain still struggling with 2Mbps connections in the shade.
Nasa has provided a constant internet connection to the International Space Station since January 2010, allowing astronauts to update their Facebook accounts and send tweets whenever they want. The upgrade will not only give them faster connection speeds, so they can watch YouTube without all that annoying pausing, it will also pave the way for future manned and scientific missions to Mars and beyond.
This is not just for future use on Mars, it's an immediate need, since the current connection is too slow for the satellites in orbit there. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter regularly sends back high-resolution images of the Martian surface. At around 2 gigabytes each, even after compression the photos take around 90 minutes to reach Earth. With a new 100Mbps lasercom, this could be done in five minutes.
--
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/30/superfast-broadband-final-frontier
~
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment