Communicating from the edge of the solar system: Centimeter-band transmissions, three-dimensional data compression, and laser-based systems may launch unmanned missions to deep space

It is one of the most challenging communications tasks ever: the creation of a “relay tower” in space, some 450 million miles (700 million kilometers) from earth. The tower will receive data from a half dozen instruments in a probe about 130000 miles (210000 km) away, and then transmit the data to earth - all without interruptions in communications and without any real-time human control of the tower.