NASA beams Mona Lisa to Moon with laser
19 Jan 2013 5:50 AM IST
In a major advance in laser communication, NASA scientists have beamed a picture of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, Mona Lisa, to a powerful spacecraft orbiting the Moon.
The first laser signal carrying the iconic image, fired from an installation in Maryland, beamed the Mona Lisa to the Moon to be received 384,400 km away by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which has been orbiting the Moon since 2009.
The Mona Lisa transmission is a major advance in laser communication for interplanetary spacecraft, NASA scientists said.
By transmitting the image piggyback on laser pulses, the team achieved simultaneous laser communication and tracking.
The success of the laser transmission was verified by returning the image to Earth using the spacecraft’s radio telemetry system.
‘This is the first time anyone has achieved one-way laser communication at planetary distances,’ said Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter, LOLA’s principal investigator, David Smith of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
‘In the near future, this type of simple laser communication might serve as a backup for the radio communication that satellites use. In the more distant future, it may allow communication at higher data rates than present radio links can provide,’ he said in a statement.
Typically, satellites that go beyond Earth orbit use radio waves for tracking and communication. LRO is the only satellite in orbit around a body other than Earth to be tracked by laser as well. Agencies
WORLD’S MOST COMPLEX 2D LASER BEAM CREATED
Researchers, including one of Indian origin, have demonstrated the most complex 2-D optical phased array ever that can generate high-resolution beam patterns.
The new 2-D optical phased array technology will enable advanced Light Detection And Ranging (LADAR) and other defence applications.
LADAR provides a more detailed level of information that can be used for applications such as rapid 3-D mapping. The array, which has dimensions of only 576 micro metre x 576 micro metre, roughly the size of the head of a pin, is composed of 4,096 (64 x 64) nanoantennas integrated onto a silicon chip.
Key to this breakthrough was developing a design that is scalable to a large number of nanoantennas, developing new micro-fabrication techniques, and integrating the electronic and photonic components onto a single chip.
The first laser signal carrying the iconic image, fired from an installation in Maryland, beamed the Mona Lisa to the Moon to be received 384,400 km away by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which has been orbiting the Moon since 2009.
The Mona Lisa transmission is a major advance in laser communication for interplanetary spacecraft, NASA scientists said.
By transmitting the image piggyback on laser pulses, the team achieved simultaneous laser communication and tracking.
The success of the laser transmission was verified by returning the image to Earth using the spacecraft’s radio telemetry system.
‘This is the first time anyone has achieved one-way laser communication at planetary distances,’ said Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter, LOLA’s principal investigator, David Smith of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
‘In the near future, this type of simple laser communication might serve as a backup for the radio communication that satellites use. In the more distant future, it may allow communication at higher data rates than present radio links can provide,’ he said in a statement.
Typically, satellites that go beyond Earth orbit use radio waves for tracking and communication. LRO is the only satellite in orbit around a body other than Earth to be tracked by laser as well. Agencies
WORLD’S MOST COMPLEX 2D LASER BEAM CREATED
Researchers, including one of Indian origin, have demonstrated the most complex 2-D optical phased array ever that can generate high-resolution beam patterns.
The new 2-D optical phased array technology will enable advanced Light Detection And Ranging (LADAR) and other defence applications.
LADAR provides a more detailed level of information that can be used for applications such as rapid 3-D mapping. The array, which has dimensions of only 576 micro metre x 576 micro metre, roughly the size of the head of a pin, is composed of 4,096 (64 x 64) nanoantennas integrated onto a silicon chip.
Key to this breakthrough was developing a design that is scalable to a large number of nanoantennas, developing new micro-fabrication techniques, and integrating the electronic and photonic components onto a single chip.
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