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NASA sends 4K video to the ISS faster than you can download games

NASA transferred 4K video from an aircraft in mid-flight to a satellite and then to the International Space Station at a speed that is beyond 900 Mbps.

NASA sends 4K video to the ISS faster than you can download games
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Junior Editor
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The average household in the United States enjoys a reasonably fast internet speed of 245 Mbps, which translates to 30 megabytes per second. This kind of internet speed makes light work of new games that weigh 100GB, but what about the internet speeds in space? Or specifically the ISS? How long would it take for astronauts aboard the ISS to download Call of Duty: Modern Warfare?

NASA has recently put its network to the test under the HDTN project, which has successfully streamed 4K UHD video between NASA's PC-12 aircraft, optical ground stations, a satellite, and finally, the International Space Station (ISS). During the test, NASA recorded speeds of more than 900 Mbps or 112.5 megabytes per second.

So, what happened? NASA began testing its network in May by firing lasers from a small single-engine aircraft while it flew over Lake Erie. The target was a ground station in Cleveland, Ohio, which then relayed the 4K video to NASA's White Sands Test Facility. From there, the 4K video was blasted to NASA's Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) satellite, which was then sent to the ISS.

NASA sends 4K video to the ISS faster than you can download games 5165615165

What is the point of doing this? NASA plans to establish what it calls a Solar System Internet network, which will enable safe, reliable, and high-quality communications around the solar system, particularly with upcoming missions such as Artemis II or, eventually, the landing on Mars.

During these experiments, NASA would be able to send all of the game files for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which amounts to approximately 240GB, to the ISS in just 35 minutes.

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NEWS SOURCE:www1.grc.nasa.gov
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Junior Editor

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Jak joined the TweakTown team in 2017 and has since reviewed 100s of new tech products and kept us informed daily on the latest science, space, and artificial intelligence news. Jak's love for science, space, and technology, and, more specifically, PC gaming, began at 10 years old. It was the day his dad showed him how to play Age of Empires on an old Compaq PC. Ever since that day, Jak fell in love with games and the progression of the technology industry in all its forms.

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