NASA is set to equip the Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft with a laser communications terminal in preparation for the first scheduled crewed test flight of the Artemis space exploration mission.
The Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for integration with NASA’s exploration vehicle to enable faster transmission of high-definition pictures and videos from the moon, the agency said Tuesday.
“In addition to video and pictures, O2O will transmit and receive procedures, pictures, flight plans, and be a link between Orion and mission control on Earth,” said Steve Horowitz, O2O project manager.
O2O uses laser signals to send images and videos to one of two ground stations in Las Cruces, New Mexico, or Table Mountain, California.
Video and image quality will partly depend on cloud coverage at the ground stations.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center developed the laser communication terminal in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory.
