'An impressive leap': Artemis II used lasers to communicate 100000x faster than the Apollo 13 mission
Date:
Sat, 18 Apr 2026 18:35:00 +0000
Description:
Laser communication systems on Artemis II promise extreme data speeds
compared to Apollo era radios, but still face environmental limitations.
FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Pro Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are
now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Artemis II generates data volumes that old systems cannot handle efficiently Laser communications transmit far more data than traditional radio systems Infrared light enables high-speed space communication across vast distances The sheer volume of data generated during modern lunar missions has rendered old radio systems nearly obsolete.
Artemis II was expected to produce somewhere between 300GB and over 400GB of high-resolution imagery and telemetry by the missions end. By comparison, the Apollo 13 mission operated with a fraction of that capacity, and the difference is not just incremental its a fundamental overhaul in how spacecraft talk to Earth. Article continues below You may like Artemis II
will use laser beam tech to send '4K video from the Moon' The first iPhone 17 Pro Max photos sent from the Artemis II mission The Artemis II used a 12-year-old GoPro to capture greatest gift sight The engineering shift that made the leap possible Traditional radio frequencies could not move that much data quickly enough, so engineers turned to an entirely different method: laser communications.
Laser communications rely on invisible infrared light, which travels at the same speed as radio waves but carries far more information.
Because infrared light has a higher frequency, it can pack more data into
each transmission - and the Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System (O2O) demonstrated the ability to downlink over 100GB of data.
This system could move roughly 36GB in a single hour, outpacing traditional radio systems on the S-band, which could manage only about 7GB per day. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro
newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.
NASA noted, More data means more discoveries, although the practical
benefits for crew safety and real-time decision-making remain to be fully proven.
However, this system came with its earthly limitations, and any weather disruption could interrupt the flow of information.
Ground station telescopes at NASAs White Sands Complex in New Mexico and the Table Mountain Facility in California had to operate in high, dry
environments with minimal cloud cover to maintain a strong laser link. What
to read next You can buy the same memory card used during the Artemis II mission on Amazon I compared Artemis II mission's historic dark side of the moon photo with my Sony Alpha A6000 Artemis II astronaut snaps stunning Moon photo with an iPhone 17 Pro Max
Still, the O2O terminal comprising a 4-inch telescope, two gimbals, a modem, and a controller passed multi-day readiness reviews.
A NASA official described the achievement as an impressive leap forward, yet the system was not used on Artemis III, raising questions about the pace of adoption.
While a 100,000-fold improvement over Apollo 13 sounds extraordinary, the comparison deserves scrutiny.
Apollo 13s radio systems were designed in the 1960s, and modern radio technology has also improved considerably.
The real test will be whether laser communications prove reliable over deep-space distances without frequent ground-station interventions.
The Australian National University attempted to receive O2Os laser links
using affordable commercial components a demonstration that could validate
or undermine claims of scalability.
For now, the numbers are impressive, but space history is littered with promising technologies that struggled outside controlled conditions. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.
======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/an-impressive-leap-artemis-ii-used-lasers-to-com municate-100000x-faster-than-the-apollo-13-mission
--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)