In a major advance in laser communication, Nasa scientists have beamed a picture of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, Mona Lisa, to a powerful spacecraft orbiting the moon. The first laser signal carrying the iconic image, fired from an installation in Maryland, beamed the Mona Lisa to the moon to be received 384,400 km away by Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which has been orbiting the moon since 2009.
The Mona Lisa transmission is a major advance in laser communication for interplanetary spacecraft, Nasa scientists said. By transmitting the image piggyback on laser pulses, the team achieved simultaneous laser communication and tracking. The success of the laser transmission was verified by returning the image to earth using the spacecraft’s radio telemetry system.
“This is the first time anyone has achieved one-way laser communication at planetary distances,” said Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter, LOLA’s principal investigator, David Smith of the MIT. “In the near future, this type of simple laser communication might serve as a backup for the radio communication that satellites use. In the more distant future, it may allow communication at higher data rates than present radio links can provide,” he said in a statement.