- 25 million viewers watch the first ever 4K livestream broadcast from the Moon
- Transfer speeds of 260 Mbps send video over 250,000 miles
- AWS GovCloud plays an important role in NASA simulations
Amazon Web Services – the largest cloud hyperscaler with a market share equal to the combined share of Microsoft and Google – just helped enable the first-ever 4K video stream from the Moon.
The company transmitted video footage of the Orion spacecraft via laser, with an estimated 25 million people watching the coverage on NASA+, YouTube and Amazon’s own Prime Video platform.
Not only is this the first time 4K video has been transmitted from the Moon to Earth, but it is also a major breakthrough for video transmission via laser optics instead of conventional radio.
AWS enabled transfer speeds of 260 Mbps via laser
NASA’s Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System (O2O), a laser terminal in development for more than 20 years that supports transfer speeds of up to 260 Mbps, has been key to supporting video transmission. In other words, fast enough for real-time 4K video and other mission-critical data.
Typically, streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video recommend having internet speeds of 15-20 Mbps to stream 4K videos. With NASA and AWS opening 260 Mbps, more than enough buffer memory was available to continue transmitting other telemetry files, voice communications, mission data, and other key files.
Unlike traditional radio systems, optical communications promise much higher bandwidth and are better suited to transmitting much larger data sets. They are therefore expected to become increasingly important as space exploration pushes new boundaries.
In this case, the laser transmissions were received by the Mount Stromlo Observatory near Canberra, Australia, and NASA’s White Sands Complex in New Mexico was responsible for processing and distributing the signals. “AWS, NASA and ANU teamed up and got the connection up and running in a matter of weeks, for the price of a laptop,” the company said.
In total, the video was transmitted over an estimated distance of a quarter of a million miles, “connecting viewers to the most distant humans ever traveled from Earth.”
But Amazon’s partnership with NASA goes even deeper than that, with the company hosting the official NASA+ streaming platform using AWS Elemental services.
Amazon plays a crucial role in NASA’s trajectory
In addition to video, Amazon’s cloud infrastructure also proves essential to other critical NASA operations. Its flight science team at Johnson Space Center performs tens of thousands of trajectory simulations for each launch opportunity, producing up to 2 to 5 TB of data per launch window.
Amazon is proud to proclaim that these simulations run on AWS GovCloud (US), allowing maximum security for sensitive data. Using a technique known as cloud bursting, NASA is able to “scale to hundreds of additional Intel-based cloud instances on demand,” allowing it to retarget and optimize trajectory in near real time.
Mission control aside, Amazon’s huge video streaming success sets the framework for future space missions, including the upcoming Artemis IV lunar landing that NASA hopes to put in the hands of 250 million live viewers.
Follow TechRadar on Google News And add us as your favorite source to get our news, reviews and expert opinions in your feeds.
