The Lemon Fool

Nasa receives signal from 10 million miles away in space

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/nasa-signal-laser-beam-message-b2453912.html

Success could ‘transform how spacecraft communicate’

"The message, delivered using a distant laser, could “transform” communications with spacecraft, the space agency has said."

Light travelers at 186,000 miles per second, say 1 million miles in 5 seconds for simple arithmetic.

So if this is designed to go to 20 minutes, that is roughly, 20x60/5 million miles = 240 million miles.

Average distance to Mars is 140 million miles, theoretical minimum about 40 million, but hasn’t been that close & maximum is about 240 million miles.

If all of this works & there is no loss of signal due to dust & other space objects, the laser can in principle allow relatively high band width, earth to Mars communication.

Going into deeper space may be possible as imagined by the laser impulse satellites so it will be interesting to see if this works.

Regards,