NASA with its LCRD and with a spectacular application of Laser

NASA has just set a new communication speed record using lasers. In January NASA sent the Mona Lisa to the moon using lasers. You may wonder how it was possible? NASA converted an image of the Mona Lisa into a black and white, 152 by 200 pixel image. After that they singaled to the orbiter how bright to make each pixel by delaying the message (or pulse) to one of 4,096 slots in a very small time-frame. Depending on the length of that variation, the pixel appeared one of 4,096 shades of gray. Rinse and repeat with each pixel until you have the Mona Lisa. Amazing, isn't it? :D 

LCRD 

On Tuesday, NASA announced that the Lunar Laser communication demonstration successfully used a pulsed laser beam to transmit data between the moon and earth. At a download rate of 622 megabits per second, the data travelled 239,000 miles. 

In their website NASA mentioned: The Laser Optical Communication Relay Demonstration (LCRD) will completely change the way we communicate mission-critical data, video and other information. Future optical communication systems will be able to transmit data at rates 10-100 times faster than radio-based communication systems. For example, at the current limit of 100-Mbps for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), it takes a few minutes to transmit a single high-resolution image back to earth. In some instances, this bottleneck can limit scientist's ability study the moon. An equivalent LRO mission outfitted with an optical communications transmitter would have the capacity to transmit data back to earth at more than ten times that speed, reducing the single image transmission time to just a few seconds.

Lunar Lasercomm ground terminal

Also note that, LCRD is NASA's first, long-duration optical communications mission. The team is working to fly and validate a reliable, capable and cost effective optical communications technology directly applicable to the next generation of NASA's space communication network. 

LLCD inside the LADEE spacecraft NASA