Zap! NASA Betting on Space Lasers for Superfast Calls from Mars

In 2019, the space agency plans to launch a mission that will extend upon the progress made during that 2013 trial, which was performed by NASA's LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) spacecraft. LADEE's Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD) experiment sent data from Earth to the moon at 622 megabits per second, far exceeding what would have been possible with traditional radio communications. The 2019 mission, called the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), will operate much closer to home, on the International Space Station (ISS).