Space laser to take increased broadband beyond Earth

NASA's new mission is going to attempt to show that two-way laser communication beyond Earth is possible, which expandes the possibility of transmitting huge amounts of data.

This new ability could one day allow for 3-D High Definition video transmissions in deep space to become routine.

Don Cornwell, Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) manager, said that the goal of the (LLCD) experiment is to validate and build confidence in this technology so that future missions will consider using it.

He said that this unique ability developed by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory), hasincredible application possibilities and we are very excited to get this instrument off the ground.

LLCD is NASA's first dedicated system for two-way communication using laser instead of radio waves.

Cornwell said that LLCD is designed to send six times more data from the moon using a smaller transmitter with 25 percent less power as compared to the equivalent state-of-the-art radio (RF) system and lasers are also more secure and less susceptible to interference and jamming.

The LLCD experiment is hosted aboard NASA's LADEE: a 100-day robotic mission designed, built, integrated, tested and will be operated by Ames.

LLCD's main mission objective is to transmit hundreds of millions of bits of data per second from the moon to Earth.

NASA engineers believe this technology becomes even more advantageous for communications beyond Earth's orbit.