NASA, thanks to its astronauts Randy Bresnik, Christina Koch and Kjell Lindgren, continued testing three different technological demonstrations related to data transmission in space. These are the LCRD, DSOC and ILLUMA-T, all belonging to the SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program.
The data exchange involved images of domestic animals and, in fact, it is not the first time that this type of subject has been used in scientific demonstrations.
We remember the Taters cat, whose video was transmitted from over 30 million kilometers via the DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications) laser links on board the Psyche mission.
The image and video data started from the operations center in Las Cruces, New Mexico (United States), and were modulated on infrared laser light signals towards NASA’s LCRD (Laser Communications Relay Demonstration), located approximately 35,000 km from the Earth’s surface in geosynchronous orbit.
In turn, LCRD transmitted data to ILLUMA-T (Integrated LCRD Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal) housed on the International Space Station (ISS).
These technological demonstrations of data transmission through infrared laser light are necessary to overcome one of the limitations of radio transmissions used until now.
These limitations are not linked to the transmission speed, which is the same for both lasers and radio waves and equal to the speed of light; but they are related to the ability of light to transfer more data in a single connection thus making the process much more efficient.
NASA has added to this transmission method an evolution of the communication protocols known as Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking or DTN.
This evolution, called HDTN (High-Rate Delay Tolerant Networking), serves as a high-speed path for moving data between spacecraft and their communications systems.
HDTN aggregates and routes data from multiple sources, in the case of this experiment pet photos and videos.
The ongoing experimentation aims to enable various communication services with improved security and through encryption and authentication in network routing. And this is for all data transmitted, including multimedia content with 4K resolution.
The SCaN program will continue to develop innovative communications technology to bring the scalability, reliability and performance we know from the terrestrial Internet to space, a technology that will also be essential for NASA’s Artemis program.
