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How fast can NASA connect space and Earth to data? : Okezone techno

JAKARTA – What is the data access speed in NASA often questioned. As an agency that focuses on space, NASA clearly needs very fast Internet connectivity, unlike the Internet Wifi home.

Quoting from Speed ​​test GoThursday (9/8/2023), NASA’s Earth-orbiting geosynchronous satellite system (TDRSS), made up of a constellation of Earth-orbiting geosynchronous satellites, plays an important role in providing high-speed Internet connectivity for missions NASA spacecraft. These satellites act as data relays, receiving and transmitting information between NASA spacecraft, the ISS, and ground stations.

TDRSS enables high-bandwidth communications with spacecraft and astronauts, supporting a variety of data-intensive tasks such as live video streaming, telemetry, command transmission, and scientific data transfer. For example, downlink speeds from the ISS can reach 300 megabits per second (Mbps).

This allows astronauts to communicate with mission control and quickly access necessary resources. Likewise, data transmission from space missions can occur at speeds of several megabits per second, making it easier to transfer valuable scientific data to Earth.

Reported via Slash Gearin this case NASA switched to optical communications, that is, lasers to build fiber optic links between space and earth and radio transmissions to provide the bandwidth needed to transfer data collected by satellites.

This is where TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) technology comes in. NASA has used this method to achieve data rates of 200 Gbps from orbit.

Even though the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery system uses lasers, there are no Star Wars-style red beams raining from the sky. This device uses a laser to encode data into light wave oscillations using harmless, invisible infrared rays. To maximize the amount of data that can be transferred, TBIRD transmits its data at various infrared wavelengths when it’s time to transmit.

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Infrared rays have a much higher frequency than radio waves, but they are still electromagnetic waves, so more data can be transferred. With TBIRD it is possible to achieve data transport speeds 2,000 times higher than those possible with radio waves.

On April 28, 2023, TBIRD achieved a record data transfer rate of 200 Gigabits per second, the highest space-to-ground transmission speed ever achieved with optical communications technology.

By making two 5-minute passes over the receiving station each day, TBIRD can transmit several terabytes of data in each pass. For example, in December 2022, TBIRD transmitted 1.4 TB of data in a single pass. This record did not last long as it was broken a few months later.

TBIRD transmitted its largest amount of data on May 16, 2023, when it successfully transmitted 4.8 terabytes of error-free data in a single pass through a receiving station at NASA’s JPL Optical Communications Test Laboratory.

To put that into perspective, 500 hours of HD video equals one terabyte, meaning a 5-minute broadcast on May 16 would carry enough data to transfer 2,400 hours of HD video. (Taja Aurora Bianca)

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