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NASA's optical communicationsprogram for 2015 and beyond

Cornwell, Donald

Donald M. Cornwell Jr., "NASA's optical communications program for 2015and beyond," Proc. SPIE 9354, Free-Space Laser Communication andAtmospheric Propagation XXVII, 93540E (16 March 2015); doi:10.1117/12.2087132

Event: SPIE LASE, 2015, San Francisco, California, United States

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BSTRACT

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mation to be ima narrower trand lower transmi

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at NASA Heaand near-Earth(LLCD) from

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ed the potentiahis is almost anstrated that opg) and 25% lessume and the sn to greatly incto the onboard

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the spectaculareturn real, hig

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Plenary Paper

Free-Space Laser Communication and Atmospheric Propagation XXVII, edited by Hamid Hemmati, Don M. Boroson Proc. of SPIE Vol. 9354, 93540E · © 2015 SPIE · CCC code: 0277-786X/15/$18 · doi: 10.1117/12.2087132

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 9354 93540E-1Downloaded From: https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie on 21 Jun 2020Terms of Use: https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/terms-of-use

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Daniel Raible, NA

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LASER COENV

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ications technoEarth environLCRD) [7], whhree componenoptical telesco

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OMMUNICAVIRONME

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ATIONS FOENT

munications exonal Space Stafor new empl

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Mountain in Cag other LEO

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able Mountain upling of the dn of the DPSKl be supported ing code (on thouts due to dee

ogy investigationP) of today’s cur

l system [5], korporate a boddefined modem intriguing posdeep space ter

OR THE NE

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f data per day r technology ’s Goddard Sp

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ercial telecommn View, CA.

in California downlinked LCK signal require

between each he uncoded DPep atmospheric

n to merge Ka-brrent RF system

known as the indy-pointed 3 mm for both Ka-bssibilities for prminals.

EAR-EART

he Optical PAy2014 [6]. OPAA’s JPL, whicir professional sed on a paylotest source forh had also succs to demonstra

between pointmission is th

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will both be uCRD signals froes spatial coheground station

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band s.

ntegrated meter RF band and planetary

TH

yload for ALS was ch meant

careers. ad using r newly-cessfully ate laser

ts on the he Laser nter with esign for oller are

m (MRM) choice of

used to on in the vide data atellite in

upgraded om GEO erence at n and the on rate of


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1.25 GbpDown lin

From ISS

Finally, LCfundamental systems. Thsite and usincloudy whileto serve NAS

Currently, LCthe LCRD-drelay from Lanalog to ourto our next instruments.

Finally, NASperforming sWe are currcommunicati

[1] BorosonCornwel89710S,

RD is fundedgoal of build

his includes lonng that data, foe the other is cSA’s communi

Figure 5. The L

CRD is plannederived Low-EaLEO through thr current RF-bageneration of

SA is committestudies to buildrently evaluatinions on NASA

n, D. M., Robill, D. M., "Ove International S

d as a two-yeading long-termng-term measuor example, tolear). Such e

ications needs i

LCRD and ISS L

ed to relay dataarth Orbit Terhe LCRD termased Tracking Earth-orbiting

ed to building ad additional stang many sites

A’s deep space a

inson, B. S., Merview and resSociety for Op

ar demonstratim, multi-year ourements and m plan for fast xperience willin the near futu

LEO-T Missions

a between tworminal (LEO-Tminals in GEOand Data Rela

g scientific sat

a network of oations in additis around the wand near-Earth

REF

Murphy, D. Vsults of the Lunptics and Photo

ion (versus theoperational expmonitoring of ahandovers bet

l be key for furure.

for demonstrati

ground terminT) on the InterO and then to tay System (TDRtellites to dow

ptical ground sion to the two world to ident

h missions of th

FERENCES

V., Burianek, Dnar laser Comnics (2014).

e two month perience and uatmospheric antween the two rther demonstr

ing near-Earth hi

nals. Howeverrnational Spacthe ground (asRS). NASA ev

wnload ever m

stations to suppNASA station

tify the clearehe future.

D. A., Khatri,munication De

demonstrationunderstand of nd meteorologground station

rating the viabi

igh-bandwidth o

r, NASA has te Station (ISSs depicted in Fventually plans

more data from

port these missns (~ 1 m aperest skies possi

F., Kovalik, Jemonstration,"

n for LLCD) wlaser communical conditionsns (where oneility of this tec

optical relays.

tentative plans S) to fully demFigure 5) as ans to offer these

m new, high-re

sions. We are crtures) used forble to support

J. M., Sodnik,SPIE LASE,

with the nications s at each may be

chnology

to place monstrate n optical services

esolution

currently r LLCD. t optical

Z., and 89710S-


[2] Murphy, D. V., Kansky, J. E., Grein, M. E., Schulein, R. T., Willis, M. M., and Lafon, R. E., "LLCD operations using the Lunar Lasercom Ground Terminal," SPIE LASE, 89710V-89710V, International Society for Optics and Photonics (2014).

[3] Hemmati, H., Farr, W. H., Biswas, A., Birnbaum, K. M., Roberts, W. T., Quirk, K., and Townes, S., "Deep-space optical terminals (DOT)," SPIE LASE, 79230C-79230C, International Society for Optics and Photonics (2011).

[4] Hamid Hemmati, Abhijit Biswas and Ivan Djordevic, "Deep-Space Optical Communications: Future Perspectives and Applications," Proceedings of the IEEE, 99(11), 2020-2039, (2011).

[5] Raible, D., Robert R. Romanofsky, James M. Budinger, Jennifer M. Nappier, Alan G. Hylton, Aaron J. Swank, and Anthony L. Nerone. "On the Physical Realizability of Hybrid RF and Optical Communications Platforms for Deep Space Applications." In AIAA International Communications Satellite Systems Conference (2014).

[6] Oaida, Bogdan V., William Wu, Baris I. Erkmen, Abhijit Biswas, Kenneth S. Andrews, Michael Kokorowski, and Marcus Wilkerson. "Optical link design and validation testing of the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) system." SPIE LASE, pp. 89710U-89710U. International Society for Optics and Photonics (2014).

[7] Edwards, B. L., Israel, D., Wilson, K., Moores, J., and Fletcher, A., "Overview of the laser communications relay demonstration project," Proceedings of SpaceOps, 11-15 (2012).


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