Nasa is using lasers to build an internet in space for near Earth as well as deep space missions

The LCRD. Image: Nasa.

In a step towards verifying the efficacy of laser communications for speedier data rates for connections between spacecraft and the Earth, Nasa said it is developing a trailblazing, long-term technology demonstration mission. The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) mission, scheduled for launch in 2019, will help Nasa understand the best ways to operate laser communications systems, the US space agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

They could enable much higher data rates for connections between spacecraft and the Earth, such as scientific data downlink and astronaut communications. “LCRD is the next step in implementing Nasa’s vision of using optical communications for both near-Earth and deep space missions,” said Steve Jurczyk, Associate Administrator of Nasa’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, which leads the LCRD project.

Image: Nasa.

“This technology has the potential to revolutionize space communications, and we are excited to partner with the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate’s Space Communications and Navigation program office, MIT Lincoln Labs and the U.S. Air Force on this effort,” Jurczyk said. Laser communications, also known as optical communications, encodes data onto a beam of light, which is then transmitted between spacecraft and eventually to Earth terminals.

This technology offers data rates that are 10 to 100 times better than current radio-frequency (RF) communications systems. Just as important, laser communication systems can be much smaller than radio systems, allowing the spacecraft communication systems to have lower size, weight and power requirements. Such capability will become critically important as humans embark on long journeys to the moon, Mars and beyond.

A Nasa scientists works on assembling the optical module of the LCRD. Image: Nasa.

“LCRD is designed to operate for many years and will allow Nasa to learn how to optimally use this disruptive new technology,” Don Cornwell of the Space Communications and Navigation programme office at Nasa Headquarters said. “We are also designing a laser terminal for the International Space Station that will use LCRD to relay data from the station to the ground at gigabit-per-second data rates,” Cornwell said.

“We plan to fly this new terminal in 2021, and once tested, we hope that many other Earth-orbiting NASA missions will also fly copies of it to relay their data through LCRD to the ground,” Cornwell added. The LCRD team is led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Partners include NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory.

Publish date: March 23, 2017 2:49 pm| Modified date: March 23, 2017 2:51 pm

MIT researchers develop flexible optical fibre for medical implants in the brain

By tech2 News Staff /  18 Oct 2016 , 16:33

A collaboration of researchers between Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Medical School has resulted in the development of highly flexible and stretchable optical fibre for use in biomedical implants within the human body.

The fibre can be used to measure strain, detect signs of disease, or directly treat cells in the human body, especially in the brain. The optical fibre is based on hydrogel, a material made up mostly out of water.

The implants are long lasting and can remain within the human body for extended periods of time. One of the major use case scenario is in a field of medical science known as optogenetics. Here, pulses of light are used to directly activate cells, especially neurons in the human brain. Very thin needle like fibers are used for this purpose. The brain is made up of jelly like material that can be easily damaged by stiff optical fibers. The flexible fiber can allow for therapy over longer durations of time.

Xuanhe Zhao, the Robert N. Noyce Career Development Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering says, “The brain is like a bowl of Jell-O, whereas these fibers are like glass — very rigid, which can possibly damage brain tissues. If these fibers could match the flexibility and softness of

Researchers develop soft, shock-absorbing material to make 3-D printed robots safer

Representational Image. Image: 3D Systems (Twitter page

  06 Oct 2016 , 15:11

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new method for 3-D printing soft materials that make robots safer and more precise in their movements. The material could be used to improve the durability of drones, phones, shoes, helmets, and more, according to the researchers. The team’s “programmable viscoelastic material” (PVM) technique allows users to programme every single part of a 3D-printed object to the exact levels of stiffness and elasticity they want, depending on the task they need for it.

For example, after 3-D printing a cube robot that moves by bouncing, the researchers outfitted it with shock-absorbing “skins” that use only a fraction of the energy it transfers to the ground. “That reduction makes all the difference for preventing a rotor from breaking off of a drone or a sensor from cracking when it hits the floor,” said Daniela Rus from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory who oversaw the project.

“These materials allow us to 3-D print robots with visco-elastic properties that can be inputted by the user at print-time as part of the fabrication process,” Rus noted in a statement released by MIT. The skins also allow the robot to land nearly four times more precisely, suggesting that similar shock absorbers could be used to