To reach Mars, NASA would need many advanced pieces of equipment and one daring mission. But, according to Inverse’s report, NASA is developing a large dish in California to let Mars astronauts communicate with Earth.
The space agency also intends to use advanced-powered lasers! As it might seem a little bit odd, NASA tried for decades to bring something intriguing for their old-fashioned technology, and maybe they get lucky this time. Using radio waves to communicate with the astronauts didn’t take NASA too far. It only proved something could be done. Over and over again. So, we expect NASA will make a smart decision and engage in a daring project of high-technology development.
New Technology and Lasers for Mars Missions
When humans finally reach the Red Planet’s grounds, it will request a steady, high-speed connection so that NASA can communicate with them. The space agency currently believes that only lasers could bring positive results. “Lasers can increase your data rate from Mars by about 10 times what you get from radio,” explained the director of the project, Suzanne Dodd.
What did NASA realize so far? It started the building of a 112-foot dish, which workers are raising it in Goldstone, California. Soon it will become a part of a massive assemblage of similar laser communication dishes. The equipment is packed with mirrors and a particular receiver to let it to beam and get back lasers from a spaceship deep in space.
The upcoming dish has been dubbed Deep Space Station-23 (DSS-23). It will be tested long before humans will start their Mars journeys. NASA intends to try the whole system out to interact with its Psyche mission, according to Inverse. Such a thing will happen somewhere in 2022, and it will try to intercept a space object orbiting our host star, the Sun.
