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Spinoff story
Low-Cost Transceiver Will Allow First Laser Mass Communication
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
Since the advent of the laser in the 1960s, engineers have struggled to use light beams in free space to send information the way we use radio waves. A transceiver created at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, now licensed by Atlanta-based Xenesis, could be a breakthrough. Rather than burying fiber-optic cables, clients can beam secure laser signals above ground across a network of these transceivers. But the more widespread application will come when a satellite constellation and ground network now under construction begin to support mass communications.