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Shining a Light on Interplanetary Communication

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at the MIT have developed a new device that they claim could one day boost interplanetary communication to broadband speeds. From the article: 'The new light detector improves detection efficiency to 57 percent at a wavelength of 1,550 nanometers--the same wavelength used by optical fibers on Earth to carry broadband signals to homes and offices. Currently, light detectors only absorb about 20 percent of the light they receive. "It can take hours with the existing wireless radio frequency technology to get useful scientific information back from Mars to Earth," said study team member Karl Berggren from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "But an optical link can do that thousands of times faster."'"

1 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What about Gravity Wave Communication by wiggles · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    To the moderator who modded me a Troll:

    1. You should get some of the stuff this guy's smoking. It's pretty good.
    2. It's funny. Laugh.