NASA streams first 4K video from aircraft to space station and back

A staff at NASA’s Glenn Analysis Middle in Cleveland has streamed 4K video footage from an plane to the Worldwide Area Station and again for the primary time utilizing optical (laser) communications. The feat was a part of a sequence of exams on new know-how that would present dwell video protection of astronauts on the moon in the course of the Artemis missions.

Traditionally, NASA has relied on radio waves to ship data to and from space. Laser communications use infrared gentle to transmit 10 to 100 occasions extra information quicker than radio frequency methods.

Working with the Air Drive Analysis Laboratory and NASA’s Small Enterprise Innovation Analysis program, Glenn engineers briefly put in a transportable laser terminal on the stomach of a Pilatus PC-12 plane. They then flew over Lake Erie, sending information from the plane to an optical floor station in Cleveland. From there, it was despatched over an Earth-based community to NASA’s White Sands Take a look at Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the place scientists used infrared light indicators to ship the information.

The indicators traveled 22,000 miles away from Earth to NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), an orbiting experimental platform. The LCRD then relayed the indicators to the ILLUMA-T (Built-in LCRD LEO Person Modem and Amplifier Terminal) payload mounted on the orbiting laboratory, which then despatched information again to Earth. Throughout the experiments, Excessive-Price Delay Tolerant Networking (HDTN), a brand new system developed at Glenn, helped the sign penetrate cloud protection extra successfully.

“These experiments are an incredible accomplishment,” stated Dr. Daniel Raible, principal investigator for the HDTN mission at Glenn. “We will now construct upon the success of streaming 4K HD movies to and from the space station to supply future capabilities, like HD videoconferencing, for our Artemis astronauts, which might be necessary for crew well being and exercise coordination.”

After every flight test, the staff repeatedly improved the performance of their know-how. Aeronautics testing of space know-how usually finds points extra successfully than floor testing, whereas remaining cheaper than space testing. Proving success in a simulated space surroundings is essential to transferring new know-how from a laboratory into the manufacturing phase.

“Groups at Glenn guarantee new concepts usually are not caught in a lab, however truly flown within the related surroundings to make sure this know-how may be matured to enhance the lives of all of us,” stated James Demers, chief of plane operations at Glenn.

The flights have been a part of an company initiative to stream high-bandwidth video and different information from deep space, enabling future human missions past low Earth orbit. As NASA continues to develop superior science devices to seize high-definition information on the moon and past, the company’s Area Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program embraces laser communications to ship massive quantities of data again to Earth.

Whereas the ILLUMA-T payload is not put in on the space station, researchers will proceed to check 4K video streaming capabilities from the PC-12 plane by the rest of July, with the purpose of growing the applied sciences wanted to stream humanity’s return to the lunar floor by Artemis.