Hello world: International Space Station communications speed up

Updates from the International Space Station can be fascinating. And communications with the orbiting lab look set to get faster: Nasa reports it has successfully beamed high-definition video via laser from the ISS down to an observatory on the ground through the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (Opals), which was sent to the space station earlier this year.

The approach uses focused laser energy to achieve data rates 10-1,000 times higher than current space communications, which rely on radio portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, according to Nasa.

“It’s like upgrading from dial-up to DSL,” said project systems engineer Bogdan Oaida on Nasa’s website. “Our ability to generate data has greatly outpaced our ability to downlink it. Imagine trying to download a movie at home over dial-up. It’s essentially the same problem in space, whether we’re talking about low-Earth orbit or deep space.”

There are a few issues to overcome when you are dealing with a satellite that is moving rapidly, however, not least the ability to keep the laser on target. “It’s equivalent to a person aiming a laser pointer at the end of a human hair 30ft away and keeping it there while walking,” states Nasa.

But the precision paid off: it took Opals 3½ seconds to transmit a single copy of a video that would have taken more than 10 minutes using traditional methods. And the test video’s name? Quite aptly, Hello World.