ISS will now beam back videos to Earth using lasers
ISS successfully beamed a video back to earth at speeds of 50mb/s
Mumbai: NASA had sent some special equipment to the ISS (International Space Station) to test if beaming large amounts of data back to Earth from space is viable.
The project called Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) seems successful as the ISS managed to beam its first 27 second video “Hello World!” for the first time.
According to a report on Engadget, the entire transmission lasted 148 seconds but took just 3.5 seconds to transmit the data to the Table Mountain Observatory in California.
If the transmission was to be sent via the usual route of radio waves, it would take almost 10 minutes, but it took OPALS less than two minutes (148 seconds).
In order to make this successful, the ISS is equipped with a laser hardware circuitry, which had to detect a beacon fired by the ground station before it could locate the receiver and start sending the data post the handshake.
The task is extremely difficult since the ISS is orbiting the planet at around 260 miles above the earth’s surface and at speeds of almost 17,500 mph.
According to NASA’s explanation, it is similar to pointing a laser beam at a hair strand from almost 30 feet away, while moving around the area and still keeping the beam focussed on the hair.
The OPALS experiment by NASA is not just to provide the ISS with a faster connection, but to also find a better means of connection for future spacecrafts.