NASA is working on light-based communications to transfer data

NASA is testing out new photon-based technology that could vastly improve everything from our internet and telecom to medical imaging as well.

A NASA team is scheduled to test the space agency's first integrated photonics modem aboard the International Space Station in 2020. The device, about the size of a mobile phone, incorporates lasers and switches onto a microchip, will use lasers to encode and transmit data at rates 10 to 100 times faster than today’s communications equipment. It will also involve much less power and, the transfer speeds (if tested successfully), mean we  could receive detailed video ad images from other planets across the solar system, the way currently receive them from satellites in Earth orbit.

The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), as it's called, will be setup on on the ISS to work as a transmitter and amplifier for the signals for two years of testing. After that, testing phses will gradually increase the range. You can read more about it on NASA's website here.