Astronauts Can Now Watch 4K Streaming Video on the Station

We take high definition streaming for granted in many parts of the world. Even now, as I type this article, I have the Martian streaming in high definition but until now astronauts on board the Space Station have had to accept low definition streaming. A team of researchers at NASA have developed and used a new system using an aircraft as a relay. A laser terminal was installed on a research aircraft and data was sent to a ground station. The signals were sent around the Earth and beamed to a relay satellite which then sent the signal on to the Space Station. What the astronauts will actually use it for is less likely to be streaming HD movies but will certainly be able to take advantage of the high bandwidth for science data and communications. 

Over the years, space travellers from all countries have had to rely upon radio waves to transfer data and information to and from space. This has meant reliable communication but low quality video. Alternative technologies have been available but these are generally limited to Earth-based activity. Laser is an obvious alternative which uses infrared light to transmit 10 to 100 times more data transfer than radio based systems. 

A team of researchers based at the Glenn Research Centre, part of NASA’s Cleveland presence has succeeded in establishing sufficient bandwidth to stream 4K video to the ISS using laser communications. The study was part of a series of tests of new technology that could provide high quality live video coverage of the Artemis lunar landing missions. 

The team worked closely with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program. Together they installed a temporary laser terminal on the bottom of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. The pressurised single engined aircraft then flew over Lake Erie in Cleveland sending data to a ground station nearby. The next hop was for the data to be sent over Earth-based infrastructure to White Sands, the NASA test facility in New Mexico where it was translated to an infrared signal. 

Orbiting Earth at an altitude of about 35,000 kilometres is NASA’s experimental Laser Communications Relay Demonstration satellite which received the infrared signal and then relayed it to the ISS via the Illuma-T, the Integrated LCRD LEO User Modem and Amplifier Terminal. A new system known as High-Rate Delay Tolerant Networking was integrated into the transfer and helped to deal with cloud penetration more efficiently. 

Multiple flights were completed by the Pilatus aircraft and after each test, the functionality was improved. It’s far easier to identify issues and subsequent enhancements during aeronautical testing than during ground testing. 

The upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond are a real driving force behind developing high bandwidth data transfer not just for streaming video but to provide full video conferencing abilities to the astronauts. This will not only aid mission efficiency but also help to maintain astronaut morale and wellbeing. The drive too for the capture of high quality video data along with vast amounts of scientific data will benefit this high bandwidth technology as NASA embraces laser communications as a core part of their future projects. 

Source : NASA Streams First 4K Video from Aircraft to Space Station, Back