NASA is set to test a laser technology in space. This mission is aim at speeding up space communications. The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) will be launch on 4th December 2021 after a two-year delay.
This new technology will be launch into space aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket during the Space Test Program Satellite-6 (STPSat-6) mission by the Department of Defense.
The mission is expect to be launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
After the delay, investigators suggest that the LCRD will be launch right in time to benefit the Artemis manned Moon-landing mission that is schedule to be execute in 2025.
NASA elaborate on the use of lasers in space communication.
As NASA said that the technology allows 10–100 times more data sent back to Earth when compare to radio frequencies.
NASA even share a video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel to show how the LCRD will work.
Overcrowding of the radio frequency spectrum has accelerate since mega-constellations of satellites in the low orbits of Earth have increased in number.
The LCRD is important as NASA and the commercial sector are planning several space missions using Artemis, with the plan Gateway space station and the Commercial Lunar Payload Services programme.
The Demonstration will travel to the geosynchronous orbit at 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometres) and won’t reach the moon.
This test will span over at least two years.
NASA said that the Demonstration would be much longer than other successful brief missions that sped up space communication.
The plan for the mission was approved in 2011.
In 2018 plan receive a warning from the Government Accountability Office regarding some changes in its design and scope.
The coronavirus pandemic makes a hurdles owing to safety quarantines and supply chain issues.
NASA officials also said that there were new requirements associate with moving to a US Space Force-hosted payload that further delayed the launch date.
NASA will soon launch more laser missions, not only to and from the Moon but also further out in the solar system.
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