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NASA Beams Mona Lisa to Moon with Laser


Still Waters

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Call it the ultimate in high art: Using a well-timed laser, NASA scientists have beamed a picture of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, to a powerful spacecraft orbiting the moon, marking a first in laser communication.

http://www.space.com...aser-photo.html

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I don't care if this if the biggest waste of moeny and time, it's till awesome.

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Not a waste from their standpoint I guess. They seem to be constantly chipping away at the issues holding us back from deeper space exploration. But I agree - it IS awesome! :)

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User a laser to sent information to space explorers at light speed is not a waste of money.

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It is very fascinating. All the money we spend on fancy high tech computers and mobiles will be replaced in years to come with the new laser types. With this in mind, i think computer and mobile phone companies should severely reduce their prices now, seeing that we will have to replace it all when these companies tell us that they are worthless because the laser technology has now taken over.

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Nope not a waste of money at all. It will have many useful applications.

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I do not think it is a waste of money either, because it will no doubt lead to better technology. What will be a waste of money if the prices do not go down, is the technology we are buying today.

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User a laser to sent information to space explorers at light speed is not a waste of money.

That it is at light speed is not the point, radio waves also travel at light speed, the point is that lasers are able to carry more information than radio waves.

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That it is at light speed is not the point, radio waves also travel at light speed, the point is that lasers are able to carry more information than radio waves.

Thank you! I was wondering why they did it, didn't made any sense until i red your post!

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That it is at light speed is not the point, radio waves also travel at light speed, the point is that lasers are able to carry more information than radio waves.

The data was scrambled and full of errors and very slow delivery so it doesn't seem at all practical to do this through the atmosphere but I think it would be invaluable for data transfer between two space-borne platforms. Massive amounts of data could be transferred error free without the interfering atmosphere to impede the beam. I think that in the not to distant future light will be used throughout most electronics including microprocessors.

Edited by Merc14
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I thought NASA was going to project the Mona Lisa on to the moon... :D I was feeling so excited about it, I wanted to watch NASA do that from the beach with a glass of wine...but, yeah...this is good too. Would have been cool to see a slide show projected on to the moon but it's fine. Yup, this is cool too.

Edited by Lava_Lady
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that's pretty cool not sure what any good it will bring though.considering its "NASA" anyway what happens to the painting was that the real picture or just a copy?cause if its the real thing wow that's a waste!!!

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that's pretty cool not sure what any good it will bring though.considering its "NASA" anyway what happens to the painting was that the real picture or just a copy?cause if its the real thing wow that's a waste!!!

The real Mona Lisa is on permanent display at the Musee du Louvre, I do not believe even NASA can get it off the French that easily.

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Hope no aliens intercepted it. I can just hear them saying to skip that planet - the women there sure are ugly.

Just kidding. :-)

Yeah, she was not the most beautiful of women out there, but look on the bright side, it could have been Katie Price!

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Yeah, she was not the most beautiful of women out there, but look on the bright side, it could have been Katie Price!

I wish they would send the real Katie Price to the moon. She almost ran me off the road the other day in her chavvy pink Range Rover.

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User a laser to sent information to space explorers at light speed is not a waste of money.

Radio waves travel at light speed so we've been doing it a while!

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I think a lot of people have misunderstood the article. They did not project a picture of the Mona Lisa onto the moon from earth! Nor did they project a picture of the Mona Lisa onto a craft orbiting the moon from earth!

They transmitted a digital signal of the Mona Lisa via pulsed laser light to the moon orbiting satellite that relayed the signal back to earth. If you are reading this via fibre optic broadband then your router is receiving the same sort of signal the satellite received only it was getting the signal via direct line of sight and not a cable [obviously].

post-129264-0-11546400-1359004293_thumb.If your thinking of this idea your so wrong.

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It is very fascinating. All the money we spend on fancy high tech computers and mobiles will be replaced in years to come with the new laser types. With this in mind, i think computer and mobile phone companies should severely reduce their prices now, seeing that we will have to replace it all when these companies tell us that they are worthless because the laser technology has now taken over.

If your on fibre optic broadband then you already have the technology!

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If your on fibre optic broadband then you already have the technology!

Not really.

There is a huge difference between sending a laser signal along a fibre optic cable between two fixed points and transmitting a laser signal directly to a fast moving satellite a quarter of a million miles away.

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