Any Star Trek fan worth his salt will tell you that instant video communication is the only way to go. In a step to make this science fiction tool a reality NASA has launched a new laser communication system in its latest lunar mission. LADEE or Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, carried with it a new technology called LLCD or Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration.

This two way laser communication technology may one day be able to support the kind of 3D videos that were common place in the old sci-fi series. It has been developed by MIT or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at its Lincoln Laboratory. Communications in space began with Radio Frequency when NASA first moved into space and now they have moved up to laser technology with LLCD.

This is likely to transfer six times as much data with a 25% decrease in energy and a faster return time. All in all this science project seems to have no drawbacks, except the fact that it has never been tested in outer space before. Hopefully with the LADEE using this technology it will no longer be an unproven maverick but something viable that all future missions can use.