back to article Boffins could tune telescopes to listen to lasers on Mars

Months after its July fly-by, New Horizons is still squeezing its images down pipe measured in bits-per-second – and that's a problem space boffins would like to solve in the future. As we know from NASA's successful LADEE test, lasers are a viable and truly broadband space comms medium – but firing a laser from (say) Mars and …

  1. Chris Tierney

    Struggling with BT

    Here I am shouting my ass off at bt and virgin to provide me with a faster dl than 3mbps for 5 years now and meanwhile a moving target millions of miles away is about to get a faster uplink than me. This isn't fair I've much more interesting things to stream.

    1. Yag

      "This isn't fair I've much more interesting things to stream."

      Selfies with kittens?

    2. Little Mouse

      Re: Struggling with BT

      Re: "much more interesting things to stream"

      Nice - You almost had me there. Your correct use of apostrophes gave you away though.... :)

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Struggling with BT

      Maybe if you gave BT £100m they might install a faster line to you?

  2. AbelSoul
    Thumb Up

    great gig in the sky

    +1 for the DSOTM reference.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What about having satellites receive it?

    Without the atmosphere they can receive across a wide range of wavelengths, and they could be separated at appropriate intervals to insure several were always within view from any direction and the greater distance between them would improve their fidelity. The satellites can relay what they receive down to Earth where supercomputers can crunch the data received on each together based on their location for proper interferonomy calculations.

    1. Martin Budden Silver badge

      Re: What about having satellites receive it?

      Of course satellites would work... but designing & building & launching them would be very expensive. The proposal of using the CTA gives a working solution with close-to-zero build cost.

  4. Alister
    Coat

    Disaster Area

    So, along with the Laser banks, the main speaker stacks can go on Tharsis Plateau, and the blockhouse for the instruments in Valles Marineris. Should be a good show!

    After the first chord has been played, the planet should be just about terraformed...

  5. DropBear
    Joke

    "firing a laser from (say) Mars and receiving it on Earth would need a Bloody Big Telescope."

    Augh! Won't someone think of the poor aircraft pilots - now laser-flashed not only from below but also from above?!? Irresponsible scientists at their best...

  6. Graham Marsden
    Alien

    WTF?

    So now we're not only sending Laser Armed Vehicles to Mars, we're *giving* the Martians the equipment to shoot back!!!

  7. M7S

    It's a secret Mysteron detector

    SIG

  8. John Stoffel

    It's the *wave* of the future...

    I'm really *amped* up by this new *wave* in communication technologies!

    1. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

      Re: It's the *wave* of the future...

      I see *watt* you did there...

      1. Steve Aubrey

        Re: It's the *wave* of the future...

        I find this discussion *stimulating*.

        1. Cynic_999

          Re: It's the *wave* of the future...

          Bugger off on your megacycle

          1. Gavin King

            Re: It's the *wave* of the future...

            "Bugger off on your megacycle"

            It hertz when you say things like that.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't use light. Use longwave (VLF)...

    Fewer wavelengths. Less loss.

    ;-)

  10. Elf
    Pint

    Punny Buggers

    Cheers.

  11. thx1138v2

    Which got me to thinking...Mars is red because of, well basically rust. Sooo with all that spinning rust up there and now a laser interface who will be first to claim Mars as their private data storage device?

  12. Faux Science Slayer

    The Hall Effect, Polarized Light and Instantaneous Universal Communication

    The Hall Effect shows that polarized light instantaneously changes at the receiver when polarity is reversed at the transmitter. Space based satellites would first establish at 'Laser Wire' with uninterrupted light beam connections. Then positive/negative variations can send a digital signal in an instant across galactic distances. See the Cosmology tab at FauxScienceSlayer site on this and the suppressed Rotational Universe Model where limited time travel is axiomatic.

    1. Stoneshop
      Holmes

      Re: The Hall Effect, Polarized Light and Instantaneous Universal Communication

      Blahblahblah. Another pile of pseudoscientific bullshit waffle from FSS.

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