Faster Space Communication
Department:
The Future in Space
Teaser:
NASA is going to develop faster communication networks in space to make communications with space missions up to 50 times faster than the data transfer rates available today.
Source:
SPACE.com Download time: Jan 23 2010 7:59 AM ET
Rovers and deep space probes can forget about quickly posting cool high-definition videos to YouTube, given the painfully slow data transfer rates for most of today's space missions.
But NASA wants to change that by fusing together three aged space communication networks into a much faster, more efficient data network worthy of 21st century missions to the moon, Mars and beyond. And it hopes to do it all without costing taxpayers an extra cent.
NASA's overhaul aims to boost space communication by as much as 50 times faster than today's data transfer rates, so that a Mars mission squeaking by on a few megabits per second might someday get as much as 600 megabits per second, if not more. That could enable far more scientific payoff per mission in the long run.…
See SPACE.com for links to further info.
