Danny Chapman

Need 4K Streaming on the ISS? Try “Laser Beams”

Universe Today Reports Astronauts Can Now Watch 4K Streaming Video on International Space Station

After a series of tests that progressed from ground-based experimentation, through airborne testing of a laser terminal-armed single engine aircraft, and finally to on-orbit fielding, the video streaming capability aboard the ISS took a significant leap forward thanks to laser optical communication.1 This marks further operational deployment of a technology that NASA demonstrated through its Deep Space Optical Communications experiment from December 2023, where it was able to beam a high definition 15-second cat video over a record-setting 19 million miles.2 The technology promises benefits over traditional radio frequency (RF) communications beyond the obvious higher data rate, including that they are, in some key regards, more secure.3 Their narrower beamwidth makes it more difficult for interlocutors to eavesdrop, assuming they are not skilled at rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) and lingering in direct line of sight between the sender and receiver. On the flipside, however, they are susceptible to atmospheric interference, and that tight beam also means that its pointing accuracy must be exceptional.

The Universe Today article highlights the incremental approach taken by the research team based at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory. Using a temporary laser communications terminal mounted on a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft that flew over a Lake Erie-area ground station. The article notes that this approach allowed for greater functionality improvements that could be achieved by jumping straight to ISS-based testing, as it allowed for a more rapid test-improve-retest cycle. The ISS is yet another steppingstone towards the ultimate goal, of establishing video streaming capability for cislunar missions and beyond. A permanent presence on the Moon and eventually Mars would benefit greatly from the ability to videoconference between astronauts and controlling stations on Earth, not to mention the ability to readily transmit the vast troves of scientific data that should result from such missions.

Cyber Implications

As mentioned earlier, unlike RF communications that are more easily intercepted, either through wide main lobes for low-gain antennas, or side lobes of more focused high-gain antennas, laser communication could conceivably make it much harder for eavesdropping. Further, traditional jamming techniques may also prove more difficult, although adversary laser systems could probably be employed to blind receivers in a blunt-force denial of service attack. RF communications can be employed through a variety of modulation schemes to service multiple data streams, but laser communications may raise this to yet another level. As more data streams through the relatively sparse laser communication ground infrastructure, the more valuable those gateways become to malicious cyber actors.

Although not explicitly discussed in the article, part of this testing program should include new security protocols that would be necessary to overcome any existent schemes that are based on RF-system assumptions that would no longer be applicable. This also raises the incentive for adversaries to develop RPO capabilities to linger near laser communication-capable spacecraft, opening up a new and particularly difficult to counter cyber (and physical) threat. Lastly, as commercial proliferated Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations such as Starlink begin to rely on this technology for inter-satellite communications, there must be some macro-level consideration given to how cross-interference may become a problem. This may require a management scheme similar to the Federal Communications Commission’s allocation of spectrum in the RF realm.

Whether it is for streaming cat videos to deep space or supporting secure military communications, development of such laser communication technology must be a key area of focus as we seek to build a secure and enduring space-based infrastructure.

Sources

  1. Mark Thompson, “Astronauts Can Now Watch 4K Streaming Video on the Station,” Universe Today, https://www.universetoday.com/167876/astronauts-can-now-watch-4k-streaming-video-on-the-station/#google_vignette, published 24 July 2024, accessed 28 July 2024. ↩︎
  2. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, “NASA’s Tech Demo Streams First Video From Deep Space Via Laser,” JPL NASA Official Website, https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-tech-demo-streams-first-video-from-deep-space-via-laser, published 18 December 2023, accessed 28 July 2024. ↩︎
  3. Laura Heckmann, “Optical Comms Beaming Through Technological Barriers,” National Defense, https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2024/4/29/optical-comms-beaming-through-technological-barriers, published 29 April 2024, accessed 28 July 2024. ↩︎