NASA has once again established new records with its historic Artemis II mission. Between April 1 and 11, 2026, this mission transported astronauts to the Moon and back for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. In the course of its circumlunar flight, the crew tested a new laser-communication system that enabled them to transmit large volumes of data, including some of the most spectacular images of the Moon and videos of their mission.

While the mission did not land astronauts on the lunar surface, it was a major step towards that very goal, which is set to be fulfilled by 2028 (Artemis IV). The ultimate goal of this program is to create a “sustained program of lunar exploration and development,” something NASA has been pursuing for the past twenty years.

This ambitious program has a critical bottleneck, however. Future lunar missions will require communications, navigation, and autonomous systems that generate far more data than traditional radio systems can handle.

That is why NASA and the ESA are looking to develop laser communications for future lunar missions. These systems rely on tightly focused beams of infrared light to transmit information rather than traditional radio waves. This allows laser communication systems to transmit up to 1,000 times more data than radio comms. In addition, their focused nature means that they are also nearly impossible to jam or intercept.