Will Humans Digest And Process All of This Data?
NASA to demonstrate laser beam communications system
Since the dawn of the space age, NASA has been relying on radio communications technology to send
and receive data to and from spacecraft. Although it has developed higher data-rate radio frequency
systems, data-compression, and other techniques to boost the amount of data that its current RF
systems can handle, they can't keep pace with the projected data needs of advanced instruments
and further human exploration. To break this bottleneck, NASA is turning to optical communications
technology that would use lasers to increase data rates over existing systems by anywhere from 10
to 100 times.
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NASA to demonstrate laser beam communications system
Since the dawn of the space age, NASA has been relying on radio communications technology to send
and receive data to and from spacecraft. Although it has developed higher data-rate radio frequency
systems, data-compression, and other techniques to boost the amount of data that its current RF
systems can handle, they can't keep pace with the projected data needs of advanced instruments
and further human exploration. To break this bottleneck, NASA is turning to optical communications
technology that would use lasers to increase data rates over existing systems by anywhere from 10
to 100 times.
Next
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