TJC Earth, Space Science Center director discusses launch of satellite

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - It’s what’s up there that keeps us communicating down here. And NASA is about to launch a satellite to try to make it faster.

We talked to the director of Tyler Junior College’s Earth and Space Science Center to see how much faster it can be, and what the catch is.

TJC’s Earth and Space Science Director Beau Hartweg displayed a NASA image of the LCRD satellite, which stands for, “Laser Relay Communication Demonstration.”

“And so they are sending up a communication satellite using laser technology to communicate over vast distances across space,” Hartweg said.

He added that communications will also travel to Earth and back to the satellite.

“But the trouble is clouds. And so NASA will be testing out, doing a demonstration to see how effective using laser satellites can be,” Hartweg said.

He said the Earth’s atmosphere can interfere with the signal, dispersing it to almost nothing.

“Most of our communications have been through radio because that can travel vast distances and make its way through clouds,” Hartweg said.

However, radio travels more slowly. For the demonstration, they needed areas on Earth that are typically clear.

“One in California and one in Hawaii. Those locations were chosen because they don’t typically have a lot of clouds,” Hartweg said.

So it seems the lasers won’t be blowing up anything on Earth if they can’t even evaporate a hole in a cloud. Clouds are a problem, but there is a big advantage to using a laser for communication.

“NASA is saying that if this is successful that it could transmit data somewhere between ten to a hundred times quicker than current radio methods,” Hartweg said.

In fact, according to nasa.gov, the LCRD will send data from geosynchronous orbit at 1.2 gigabytes per second. They say even from that distance a movie could be downloaded in less than a minute.

I’m sure someone will be paying for that movie.

According to NASA the LCRD has a receiving and sending terminal and is about the size of a king-sized mattress. It is scheduled to launch on December 5 at about 4 a.m.

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