Sign In
Learn bits
Science & Tech.
Mahesh

01/05/22 00:00 AM IST

NASA’s new communications system LCRD

In News 

NASA recently demonstrated its Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD). It was launched in December 2021.

LRCD 
  • It is the agency’s first-ever laser communications system.
  • The LCRD will help the agency test optical communication in space.
  • LCRD will demonstrate all of the advantages of using laser systems and allow us to learn how to use them best operationally.
  • LCRD has two optical terminals – one to receive data from a user spacecraft, and the other to transmit data to ground stations.
  • The modems will translate the digital data into laser signals.
  • This will then be transmitted via encoded beams of light. These capabilities make LCRD NASA’s first two-way, end-to-end optical relay.
Laser v/s Radio 
  • Laser communications and radio waves use different wavelengths of light.
  • Laser uses infrared light and has a shorter wavelength than radio waves.
  • This will help the transmission of more data in a short time.
  • It would take roughly nine weeks to transmit a completed map of Mars back to Earth with current radio frequency systems.
  • With lasers, we can accelerate that to about nine days.
Benefits 
  • Optical communications systems are smaller in size, weight, and require less power compared with radio instruments. 
  • A smaller size means more room for science instruments.
  • Less weight means a less expensive launch. Less power means less drain on the spacecraft’s batteries.
  • With optical communications supplementing radio, missions will have unparalleled communications capabilities.
Source-PIB 

More Related Current Affairs View All

05 May

Key objectives of caste count

'The Union Cabinet has decided that the next Census will include questions on caste to its enumeration of India’s population, for the first time in almost a century. ' T

Read More

05 May

2 new genome-edited rice varieties

'Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan recently released two genome-edited varieties of rice, the first achievement of its kind in the country.' These two varieties, which

Read More

05 Mar

First-ever comprehensive survey of India’s river dolphins

'Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the results of the first-ever comprehensive population estimation of riverine dolphins – Gangetic and Indus dolphins – done in In

Read More

India’s First Ai-Driven Magazine Generator

Generate Your Custom Current Affairs Magazine using our AI in just 3 steps