Slashdot Mirror
NASA X-Ray Tech Could Enable Superfast Communication In Deep Space (space.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Space.com: New technology could use X-rays to transmit data at high rates over vast distances in outer space, as well as enable communications with hypersonic vehicles during re-entry, when radio communications are impossible, NASA scientists say. The technology would combine multiple NASA projects currently in progress to demonstrate the feasibility of X-ray communications from outside the International Space Station. The radio waves used by mobile phones, Wi-Fi and, of course, radios, are one kind of light. Other forms of light can carry data as well; for instance, fiber-optic telecommunications rely on pulses of visible and near-infrared light. The effort to use another type of light, X-rays, for communication started with research on NASA's proposed Black Hole Imager. That mission is designed to analyze the edges of the supermassive black holes that previous research suggested exist at the centers of most, if not all, large galaxies. One potential strategy to enable the Black Hole Imager was to develop a constellation of precisely aligned spacecraft to collect X-rays emitted from the edges of those black holes. Keith Gendreau, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, thought of developing X-ray emitters that these spacecraft could use as navigational beacons to make sure they stayed in position relative to one another. The system would keep them aligned down to a precision of just 1 micron, or about one-hundredth the average width of a human hair. Gendreau then reasoned that by modulating or varying the strength or frequency of these X-ray transmissions on and off many times per second, these navigational beacons could also serve as a communication system. Such X-ray communication, or XCOM, might, in theory, permit gigabit-per-second data rates throughout the solar system, he said. One advantage that XCOM has compared to laser communication in deep space is that X-rays have shorter wavelengths than the visible or infrared light typically used in laser communication. Moreover, X-rays can penetrate obstacles that impede radio communication.
also usable as a weapon when you are really desperate
The information won't get there any quicker; X-rays don't yet travel faster than light. Rather the technology will allow very high bitrates.
Still, it's good news that we will be able to browse pr0n in space.
So it will still take about 2 minutes to boil 240cc of water? To be honest, that's a little disappointing.
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
It's the best of all technologies. One could then control the total radiation amount and focus or diffuse it as per needs. This is the obvious technology to use for interplanetary links. When it is implemented it will cause minor issues for astronomers and as such they will have to send future telescopes further and further to the edges of our solar system. A focused x-ray laser would actually be very safe.
Will this help us against Ethereal mind control, Sectoid cheese, and Muton rushes? Great chips ahoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
> [x-ray satellites] also usable as a weapon when you are really desperate
Exactly that! The hungarian jewish physicist-psychopath Ede Teller, the real-life Dr. Strangelove, tried to get Reagan's USA to build battle satellites, which would have used the explosion of a nuclear bomb onboard to generate focused x-ray laser (gamma-laser) beams coming out of about one hundred pre-positioned iron rods, used to shoot down that many hypothetical incoming soviet ICBMs in a single salvo. The USA even cancelled its membership in the UN treaty against placing nuclear weapons in space to let the idea progress. Except the project collapsed after spending about 5 billion dollars on it, because the basic theory and tech was both faulty, as far as publicly known.
Anyhow, the Kremlin wasn't amused and started the development of supressed trajectory quasi-ballistic missiles, which never leave the x-ray protection offered by atmosphere. They also started to carve out a defunct volcano in the russian Far East, in order to plant a giant nuclear shaped charge inside, which can cause planetoclasm by breaking through the tectonic plate up to 100km deep, more or less like a man-made dinosaur asteroid impact. You may call it the ultimate "dead hand" insurance and the system is supposed to go live in 2020, after a long hiatus of work during the Yeltsin era and early Putin years. The official story is the site serves as a backup communications hub bunker and leadership survival shelter for the Russian Federation.
The first message received was, "Don't let me leave, Murph!" in a douchey whine.
Nothing travels faster than bad news.
This system has been in development for quite a while. This info sheet is from 2007: https://gsfctechnology.gsfc.nasa.gov/TechSheets/XRAY_Goddard_Final.pdf
I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing. -- Thomas Jefferson
... against Ortnoks and Sheevars. Floaters and Snakemen are obsolete.
Reading these Apocalyptic Total Destruction stories is amusing. The theory that winning the overarching conflict by destroying them, all the innocents, and yourself is, of course, entirely self-defeating. But to claim that even dictatorial Communists would actually build a weapon to destroy Earth stretches credulity.
Oh, wait. This is just a micro plot for a sad, miserable short story, truncated from the original planned novel when you ran out of words.
Dammit, I fell for that again. I hate that.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Xrays do somewhat travel through water, maybe this could be used to communicate with a shallow submerged submarine too.
Nullius in verba
Moreover, X-rays can penetrate obstacles that impede radio communication.
As well as the ones that facilitate it -- otherwise known as reflectors and collimators. As long as X-rays are so very difficult to collimate, they're going to be hard to use for long-range communication. And as long as it's difficult to make emitters or detectors with very high bandwidth, they aren't going to be worth a lot for any high-speed communication.
Plus there's the whole radiation hazard thing. Not so relevant in space, but kind of a big deal here on DNA-factory-infested Earth.
OK, I get the part about X-ray comms. What I don't get is the need to deploy an X-ray beacon for the satellites to navigate. After all, there are already natural sources that can be used. The technology for using these sources is credible enough that real money and real hardware is being developed for it.
I'm willing to bet a lot of monies that at least some of the NASA personnel involved with this plan have played the XCOM games and were overjoyed at being able to find a way to work "XCOM" into something official.
So, they expect to be sued by 2K?
In addition to communicating with spacecraft during atmospheric re-entry, X-ray transmissions could also be useful for communicating with high speed aircraft such as the (rumored) Aurora hypersonic spyplane or SR-72 hypersonic UAV.