MIT’s Laser Technology Revolutionizes Data Flow for Artemis II Moon Mission
When Artemis II and its crew lifted off for NASA’s first piloted flight to the moon on Wednesday, April 1, a piece of technology from MIT and Lexington, Massachusetts, went…
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA – APRIL 01: NASA’s 322-foot-tall Artemis II Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft lifts off from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center on April 01, 2026 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The 10-day mission will take NASA astronauts Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover and Mission Specialist Christina Koch and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen around the moon and back. If all goes according to plan, the astronauts will fly 230,000 miles out into space, the farthest any human has ever traveled from Earth. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
When Artemis II and its crew lifted off for NASA's first piloted flight to the moon on Wednesday, April 1, a piece of technology from MIT and Lexington, Massachusetts, went with it.
According to a CBS Boston WBZ-TV report, researchers and developers at MIT Lincoln Laboratory have developed laser communication systems for Artemis II to transmit data via lasers rather than traditional radio frequencies.
Jade Wang, assistant group leader of optical and quantum communications at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, explained that laser communications offer higher data throughput, lower power consumption, and smaller terminals compared with the RF systems used on earlier Apollo missions to the moon.
"The in-flight instrumentation is a huge bottleneck [on newer spacecrafts], and without laser communications, all of that data that's critical to the safety and the health of the astronauts wouldn't be as readily available," said Steve Gillmer, assistant group leader of structural and thermo-fluids engineering at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, in a statement shared with CBS Boston.
Officials point to improved data reliability and compatibility with longer, more data-intensive missions thanks to advances in laser communications.
Artemis II marks NASA's first piloted Moon mission in 53 years. NASA has ambitions of a 2028 lunar landing and eventual human missions to Mars that would rely on similar technology.
"Artemis is just the first step. Ultimately, we are hoping to send people to Mars for exploration there, and this same kind of technology is required to provide the amount of data and services that we need for that kind of exploration," Wang explained.
While MIT operates MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the lab provides advanced R&D to federal agencies — including NASA, the FAA, and NOAA — as well as to the Department of War (formerly the Department of Defense).
