NASA Beams HD Video From Space Through Use of Laser

NASA successfully transmitted a 175-megabit video from the International Space Station to Earth on Thursday using the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS). This could revolutionize the way NASA receives data from space.

Expedition 40 of the International Space Station is already getting to work. OPALS was sent to the ISS during a commercial resupply mission on April 18 with the goal of demonstrating optical communication by transferring a video from the ISS to the ground receiver at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory (OCTL) in California.

This optical communications tool uses laser energy in order to achieve data transmission rates 10 to 10,000 times higher than current space communication, which are compared to a dial-up connection. The OPALS system is like a DSL upgrade NASA says. The success of OPALS is likely to improve communication with spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit and keep pace with technological advancements.

"It's incredible to see this magnificent beam of light arriving from our tiny payload on the space station," said Matt Abrahamson, OPALS mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "We look forward to experimenting with OPALS over the coming months in hopes that our findings will lead to optical communications capabilities for future deep space exploration missions," he added in this NASA news release.

In order to successfully beam the high-definition video, OPALS locked onto the ground beacon at the Table Mountain Observatory in California and transmitted the data in 148 seconds. OPALS sent the video multiple times, and NASA scientists figured out that it took 3.5 seconds to transmit a single copy of the video compared to the 10-plus minutes the current communication method would take.

OPALS flight system is comprised of a sealed container, an optical gimbal transceiver, and a flight releasable attachment mechanism (FRAM). The container is connected to the gimbal transceiver via cable feedthroughs and both of them sit atop the FRAM to provide a mechanical and electrical interface with the ISS. The system then locks onto the beacon, which converts the optical signal to electrical current and receives all of the data.

You can watch the video that was transmitted from the ISS to California here.