NASA is ready to test space internet with lasers and will send a technology demonstration to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of SpaceX’s Commercial Resupply Service mission launched in June 2023.
1. ILLUMA-T
This year, NASA will send a new device, called ILLUMA-T, to the International Space Station (ISS), which will connect with a laser relay satellite, called LCRD, that was launched in 2021. The goal is to significantly enhance scientific missions and deep-space communication, by increasing the speed of transmission. This will be NASA’s first two-way, end-to-end laser communication system.
Typically, laser communications are more secure than radio wave communications because the narrow laser beam is difficult to intercept or jam without detection. This makes it an attractive option for secure military and government communications. The device is approximately the size of a standard refrigerator and will be secured to an external module on the space station to conduct its demonstration with LCRD, NASA explains in a press release.
2. Low Earth orbit
ILLUMA-T is a technology demonstration that intends to prove the advantages of laser communications for missions in low Earth orbit, where the ISS orbits, and most commonly used for satellite imaging. Currently, most spacecrafts use radio waves communications but the main advantage of using laser communications is the increased bandwidth, enabling the transfer of more data in less time. With higher data rates, space missions are able to send more data back to Earth in a single transmission. Once installed on the space station, ILLUMA-T will showcase the benefits higher data rates could have for missions in low Earth orbit.
“Laser communications offer missions more flexibility and an expedited way to get data back from space,” said Badri Younes, former deputy associate administrator for NASA’s SCaN program. “We are integrating this technology on demonstrations near Earth, at the Moon, and in deep space.”
Currently, LCRD is showcasing the benefits of a laser relay in geosynchronous orbit – 35,786 kilometers from Earth – by beaming data between two Earth-based stations and conducting experiments to further refine NASA’s laser capabilities.
“Once ILLUMA-T is on the space station, the terminal will send high-resolution data, including pictures and videos to LCRD at a rate of 1.2 gigabits-per-second,” said Matt Magsamen, deputy project manager for ILLUMA-T. “Then, the data will be sent from LCRD to ground stations in Hawaii and California. This demonstration will show how laser communications can benefit missions in low Earth orbit.”
3. SpaceX
Later this year, ILLUMA-T will launch as a payload on SpaceX’s 29th Commercial Resupply Services mission for NASA. In the first two weeks after its launch, ILLUMA-T will be removed from the Cargo Dragon spacecraft’s trunk for installation on the station’s Japanese Experiment Module-Exposed Facility, also known as “Kibo” — meaning “hope” in Japanese.
4. Laser communications
Other space missions have tested laser communications. Some of them include the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery system, which is a small CubeSat in low Earth orbit, the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration, which exchanged data to and from the Moon in 2014, and the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science, which showed how laser communications can speed up data transfer between Earth and space in 2017.
