A new laser link with the International Space Station could do what optical fiber has done for internet access on Earth by turning orbital communications from painfully slow dial-up to blazing-fast broadband.

In recent tests of the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) instrument, which is attached to the space stations exterior, NASA scientists and engineers have demonstrated that laser communications, as opposed to traditional radio transmissions, could revolutionize how we communicate with space-based assets.

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OPALS has shown that space-to-ground laser communications transmissions are practical and repeatable, said Matthew Abrahamson, OPALS mission manager at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. As a bonus, OPALS has collected an enormous amount of data to advance the science of sending lasers through the atmosphere. We look forward to continuing our testing of this technology, which sends information to and from space faster than with radio signals.

OPALS was delivered to the ISS in April by a SpaceX Dragon cargo vehicle and it has since completed the first 4 months of its prime mission. In an effort to minimize the impact of atmospheric turbulence on data loss, OPALS uses 4 individual lasers and average out the data received by the Optical Communications Telescope Laboratorys ground station at JPLs Table Mountain Observatory in Wrightwood, Calif. The next big step for system development is the use of adaptive optics to dynamically compensate for this turbulence.

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Four lasers from the ground station travel through the sky toward the space station. Under clear, dark background conditions, its very easy for the payload to acquire the ground beacon. Daylight conditions have proven more challenging, but we are working on increasing capabilities during the day as well, through software enhancements, said Abrahamson.

According to a JPL news release, some of the landmark transmissions included:

All in all, OPALS is proving laser communications between the Earth and orbit could transform how we transmit data into space, but the biggest challenge to this method is, of course, the weather.

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Space Station Laser Link Blasts Broadband Data from Orbit