NASA has announced a new breakthrough in space communication technology! For the first time ever, they have successfully demonstrated a two-way, end-to-end laser communications system between an Earth ground station and a spacecraft orbiting the planet. This new system, which they have dubbed the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS), is capable of transmitting data at speeds up to 50Mbps—a tremendous improvement over the current record of 622 Kbps. OPALS will allow researchers to send and receive large amounts of data to and from space much faster than ever before. This is an exciting milestone in space exploration and communication and could lead to new and exciting possibilities in the near future.

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source: Phys.org