A TeraNet ground station at the University of Western Australia aims a laser at a satellite Credit: Danail Obreschkow, International Space Centre
On 11 July, Australian scientists made a super-fast connection with a satellite. This feat of engineering required the team to aim a laser up in space at a receiver built into the back of a ute.
For almost 70 years, satellites have used radio waves to send data back to Earth. But the downside of radio signals is that they travel in lazy waves that spread out over long distances. With so many satellites in Earth’s orbit, they are all competing for limited signal space.
The mobile TeraNet ground station can set up almost anywhere and catch high speed signals from space. Credit: ICRAR
Enter infrared lasers. Laser light doesn’t spread out nearly as much, meaning satellites would need to compete less. Even better, infrared waves are short and choppy so they can carry 1,000 times more data than radio waves.
“The James Webb Space Telescope spends something like 10 hours a day downloading its scientific images to the ground,” says lead scientist Sascha Schediwy. “Using laser type technology, this would go down to several minutes.”
Sascha hopes this breakthrough will speed up deep-space communication and connect remote areas with high-speed internet. Maybe lasers will stream high-definition video when NASA lands the first women and person of colour on the Moon. Inspiring!
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