T-rays, as they’re known, also have the advantage of being able to penetrate many materials without using ionizing radiation, and to identify substances spectroscopically, which makes them suited to finding drugs, explosives, and pathogens.
Okay, so it may have problems in Earth's atmosphere, but in space, or on the Moon, or Mars, terahertz comms won't face that.What about radar and sensory applications? This article from IEEE says that terahertz rays (T-rays) can be used for spectroscopy as well:http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/wireless/darpa-builds-first-terahertz-amplifierQuoteT-rays, as they’re known, also have the advantage of being able to penetrate many materials without using ionizing radiation, and to identify substances spectroscopically, which makes them suited to finding drugs, explosives, and pathogens.So could T-rays be used to prospect for minerals, say in the asteroid belt for example?I'm not sure what need there is for sub-millimeter radar-imaging in space applications. Are there any?
Terahertz /also/ needs to be tightly focused.
As part of a DARPA-funded project, Northrop-Grumman has created the world’s fastest solid-state amplifier circuit which can operate at frequencies of 1 Terahertz:http://www.forbes.com/sites/eliseackerman/2014/11/03/darpas-terahertz-breakthrough-could-help-ease-spectrum-crunch/http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/DARPA_Circuit_Achieves_Speeds_of_1_Trillion_Cycles_per_Second_Earns_Guinness_World_Record_999.htmlWhat potential advantages might this type of technology offer for space-based communications?Could something like this help a lunar or Mars rover send back streaming video to the Earth?It seems like a given that the higher your frequency, the greater data-rate you can support.I've read that laser-based communication has even higher frequency still, but on the other hand it probably has to be very precisely targeted between sender and receiver. Could terahertz radio span a gap by providing high-frequency, high-data-rate communication without requiring as extremely precise aiming as might be needed for laser communication?
Terahertz /also/ needs to be tightly focused. Additionally, clouds and such interfere with it much like with laser light. Terahertz is similar to laser comms in those ways.
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I wish they didn't call it MRI, because its operating principle is nothing like MRI...