Mawara Tahir
We have all been enjoying the luxury of using wifi and internet almost everywhere we go around the globe. We have been able to connect with people anywhere in the world using the fast transmission lines at very low costs. But, you will be surprised to know that this technology is now about to connect you with people on other planets too.
Yes! Nasa is pushing a new era of modernization. It has just unveiled a new antenna that will provide ultra-fast “space broadband” that could make live TV transmissions from Mars a reality and much more.
NASA breaks ground on a new antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex (GDSCC)- its profound space interchanges center in the Mojave Desert close to Barstow, California. It’s an essential part of NASA JPL’s Deep Space Network (DSN), which is the means by which engineers communicate with, and get information from, its numerous robotic probes in the solar system and beyond.
Since its inception, NASA has utilized radio waves to send and receive data, which are truly reliable, however slow. In fact, it’s uncommon for any spacecraft to send back pictures at in excess of a few megabits per second (Mbps). That is dial-up speed, and it genuinely hampers the exchange of scientific data. There are three edifices in NASA’s Deep Space Network, each put 120º from one another; California, Madrid in Spain and Canberra in Australia.
Goldstone’s new reception apparatus will incorporate some ability to test optical correspondences and, explicitly, a new innovation NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is working on called Deep Space Optical Communication (DSOC).
If all goes according to plan it could mean the Deep Space Network being able to upgrade from slow radio transmissions to super-fast “space lasers” that could massively increase data rates to as much as 10 or even 100 times faster and you will be able to take a tour of the space live!
