When astronauts land on Mars, a couple of decades from now, perhaps, they’ll need to find a way to communicate — with each other, with equipment on and around the planet, and with mission control back on Earth. Despite living so far from home, they’ll no doubt want to connect with loved ones, keep their playlists up-to-date or stream the latest episodes of their favorite shows.
No known strategies can get rid of the time lag in communications between Earth and Mars; a message moving at the speed of light takes anywhere between four and 24 minutes for a one-way trip. In other words, a quick ping to mission control is out of the question, not to mention a WhatsApp call home. EARTH AND MRO: NASA; DSN ANTENNA: ANITA GOULD/FLICKR ; ROVER, INGENUITY AND MARS SURFACE: JPL-CALTECH/NASA; ADAPTED BY C. CHANG
Once a human crew lands on Mars, this system will not be good enough. Vincent Chan, a researcher in fiber-optic and satellite communications at MIT, doesn’t foresee local, on-the-ground communication as a challenge. A Martian crew can interact using radio frequency and existing wireless technologies, he says.
Though traditional radio frequencies would suffice for low data rates, using a laser link could carry 10 to 100 times as much data in the same time frame. Because of the higher frequencies of optical waves, hundreds of thousands of times those of radio waves, much more information can be packed in. Thus, this type of optical signal is just where space communication may be headed.
An ESA program called Moonlight invites private space companies to set up a constellation of communication satellites around the moon, including for regions that don’t have direct visibility to Earth. The first phase of the program includes the launch of the Lunar Pathfinder orbiter, currently planned for 2026.
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