NASA has fired a greyscale image of the Mona Lisa to its Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter, as part of an experiment using optics
instead of radio for deep-space communications. Any space-
watcher knows the frustration at the delays imposed by skinny
radio channels in anything involving a deep-space mission. NASA
is intensely … Laser communication is radio communication. To
counter-troll, no it isn't. The converse would be true, a device
transmitting radio through the stimulation and spontaneous
emission of excited electrons in a gain medium would, in a
particular form of pedantry, also be a laser (as is a maser, in
this view), but a device employing a laser not in the radio
region of the spectrum is not radio communication. Unless you
think for instance that radio waves are the same thing as gamma
rays, in which case I invite you to put a strong gamma source to
your ear and see how that works for you. Depends who you ask.
Wikipedia (yes, I know) for example defines Radio as "...the
wireless transmission of signals