What Are the Download Speeds in Space?

Learn about NASA's DSOC program, a laser system for communicating in space.

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[doodskie]

Earth Gamer: Man my Ping is 140ms
Mars Gamer: Man my ping is 22 minutes

[Snaily]

This honestly feels like a SciShow video, in a good way. Well explained and easily digestible.

[jivewig]

Starlink is also one of those examples of inter-satellite communication where they use laser to transmit data between satellites.

[dylanhecker]

Imagine aliens intercept our laser communications and see cat videos. Really shows humanity's obsession for our fur balls.

[cwaldrip]

Torrenting from Mars is still going to 😛

[jocopowell]

I was able to download the entire Kessel run in 8 parsecs.

[FennecTECH]

the latency on mars is still going to be brutal 45 minute ping time simply because of the speed of light

[dillonahrens]

I can't even tell you how happy it makes me to see space and nasa represented outside of their specific channels.

[sandmaster]

Should have mentioned the data rates of comms with the Voyager probes!!

[Kytetiger]

05:59 they did really send a cat video! 😸

[mrknighttheitguy]

I loved this video; so interesting. Riley, we need more of these!

[fridaycaliforniaa]

Imagine getting a high def photo of Uranus...

[zdidrxf]

One advantage you have in transmitting electromagnetic waves in a vacuum is that the speed of light c is a constant for all frequencies. That is not true in a material because the phase velocity in a dielectric material will differ with frequency. To send information you need a band of frequencies around the carrier and so in a material (i.e. circuit board) the different phase velocities of the different frequency components will cause dispersion and signal integrity issues.

[sevenofzach]

Love that y'all are doing space videos!

[CoreyKearney]

It's been said, I'll say it again. This is sci-show levels of communication and subject matter. Well done. Lets have more of this please.

[xanderplayz]

TLDR: The ISS has like 300 megabits, but it still is like a billion ping.

[yensteel]

For terabytes of data, the good ole pigeon carrier method would do well in the future. Using missles instead of pigeons.

[EhrenLoudermilk]

The ECC on that signal would be a fascinating topic

[hirudasanguinen]

i hope the alien's are not light-based
else they might see the cat attacking the lazer as an threat

[LordSandwichII]

How I imagine the Mars colony internet would work would be that the most popular content on Earth would be curated by an AI every day, then sent to Mars to be stored locally for the entertainment of the people living there. That way, you could still scroll on your phone during your break or downtime without having to wait for the system to ping Earth for it. If you do want anything else, you can still request it, but you'll have to put up with the delay. The system would also work the other way round.