"NASA has spent the past two decades developing optical communications systems. By using bursts of infrared light rather than microwaves from a laser to encode data, these systems can move far more information than traditional systems and can often do so with a smaller and lighter device."
"The Orion crew capsule will, in fact, use this older technology as its core communications system, connecting back to NASA's Near Space Network and Deep Space Network of giant radio antennas spread across the globe."
The Orion Artemis II mission is utilizing the Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System (O2O), a laser-based communication system developed over two decades. O2O can transmit data at speeds up to 260 megabits per second, significantly surpassing previous microwave communication methods. While the Orion crew capsule will primarily use traditional microwave technology for core communications, O2O represents a major advancement in deep space communication. Key components of O2O have been validated through various demonstrations, including the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration in 2013, which achieved record download speeds from the moon to Earth.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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