2014: The Year In Science
Lasers Unleash A Flood Of Space Data ESA's Optical Ground Station The European Space Agency’s Optical Ground Station on Tenerife in the Canary Islands can communicate via laser with NASA’s newest lunar orbiter. Here, it receives a laser transmission from a telescope on neighboring La Palma island. IQOQI Vienna, Austrian Academy of Sciences/ESA In January 2013, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter received a historic transmission: an image of the Mona Lisa. It was the first time scientists used a laser to send data to the moon, a feat that promises to exponentially increase the flow of information to and from space. For the past 50 years, spacecraft have relied on radio waves to communicate with Earth. But radio has limitations. Airwaves are crowded. Signals degrade with distance, so transmissions require power-hungry generators and large...