International Space Station to Beam Video Via Laser Back to Earth

[bananas]

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2014/03/13/nasa-laser-iss-experiment/

International Space Station to Beam Video Via Laser Back to Earth
Posted by Doug Messier on March 13, 2014

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — What’s more interesting than videos of cats chasing laser beams over the kitchen floor? How about videos sent OVER laser beams from NASA’s International Space Station back to Earth?

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“Optical communications has the potential to be a game-changer,” said mission manager Matt Abrahamson. “Right now, many of our deep space missions communicate at 200 to 400 kilobits per second.” OPALS will demonstrate up to 50 megabits per second and future deep space optical communication systems will provide over one gigabits per second from Mars.

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As the space station orbits Earth, a ground telescope tracks it and transmits a laser beacon to the OPALS. While maintaining lock on the uplink beacon, the orbiting instrument’s flight system will downlink a modulated laser beam with a formatted video. Each demonstration, or test, will last approximately 100 seconds as the station instrument and ground telescope maintain line of sight. It will be used to study pointing, acquisition and tracking of the very tightly focused laser beams, taking into account the movement of the space station, and to study the characteristics of optical links through Earth’s atmosphere. NASA will also use OPALS to educate and train personnel in the operation of optical communication systems.

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[yodermon]

1. it's not sub-space, but it'll have to do. n/t