this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] Yorick@sh.itjust.works 118 points 2 months ago (4 children)

The magic of a clear line of sight and vacuum for a good ~384'300km!

So should we do low power communications by using the moon as reflector dish?

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 89 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Also, directional vs omnidirectional antennas.

[–] facepainter@lemm.ee 48 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is the most important part.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

And not encoding any data. Well a laser pulse is kind of datum.

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 22 points 2 months ago

One bit! That’s all you get!

[–] Hugin@lemmy.world 39 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There was a NSA program that listened to soviet messages by collecting the transmissions that bounced off the moon.

[–] DaveyRocket@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I gotta say, the moon’s really starting to sound like a fucking snitch.

[–] PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk 25 points 2 months ago

Two thirds of a million kilometres under good conditions and at a precise angle to get a picture of goatse moontooth'd to my phone

Welcome to 2025!

[–] mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I am worried about 2000ms ping

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 8 points 2 months ago

That's what the anti-tachyon modulation circuit is for, to change the time phase and remove most of that lag. Once they're in sync, it's literally real time!

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 2 months ago

the distance is 384400km

That's almost the distance between my bed and the kitchen before my first cup of coffee!

[–] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 28 points 2 months ago (4 children)

It's easy, you just need a big antenna, low noise receiver (just cool it) for low bandwidth (keeps noise power low) and no interferers in the same frequency band.

[–] wander1236@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

It's almost too easy

[–] Zwiebel@feddit.org 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Show me a non-directional antenna.

[–] Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Omni-directional antennas?

[–] feddylemmy@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Omnidirectional antennas attempt to radiate equally horizontally. An isotropic antenna radiates equally in all directions but is only theoretical. All antennas have some gain.

That being said, there are some antennas that attempt to minimize that gain and be as non-directional as possible while other antennas attempt to maximize that gain and become as directional as possible.

[–] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Just because you call it non-directional doesn't mean it is. They all have gain compared to a theoretical isotropic antenna.

[–] Zwiebel@feddit.org 1 points 2 months ago

And how is that relevant? Everybody knows they mean low gain antennas

[–] Trollception@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Perfect. Now put those on cell phones and make it fit in your pocket.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Technology always gets better with no regard to physical limits.

(People who argue this unironically are a pet peeve of mine. Yes, there are limitations on what's possible.)

[–] JayDee@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 months ago

That's fair, though I think we also should thank the use of Travelling Wave Tubes (TWTs or 'twits'). These little tubes of witchcraft amplify the transmission signal to make sure we can still hear, say, the Voyager 1 that's currently over 15-billion miles away.

[–] lnxtx@feddit.nl 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My Bluetooth buds often get interference - technically 100 mW, distance from my head to a pocket.

[–] moody@lemmings.world 10 points 2 months ago

technically 100 mW

Technically a maximum of 100 mW, but realistically much lower than that.

[–] neatobuilds@lemmy.today 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I use about 800mW for my fpv drone and if you get a little bit away from yourself and go behind a tree or something you could lose video pretty easily

[–] recklessengagement@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Wonder what the latency would be like trying to fly my 3.5" on the moon from earth

Although I suppose the lack of atmosphere would be the bigger issue...

[–] Morphit@feddit.uk 2 points 2 months ago

Think of the speeds you could fly at with no drag! I'm so bummed that the Grace Hopper drone didn't get to fly after Intuitive Machines fluffed their second landing. That would have been awesome outreach from NASA.

We want drones on the moon!

[–] Bwaz@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

I bet the receiver that had noise figure low enough to detect that signal consumed more than 3nW while doing it.

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

To be fair, that's an insignificant distance for light to travel.

[–] 7eter@feddit.org 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Still takes at least 2 seconds for the round trip.

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well, according to my ex, even 30 or 90 seconds is an interval unworthy of consideration.

[–] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)