NASA is presently overseeing a project to create the world's first free-space laser communications system that can be operated over a range ten times larger than the near-earth ranges that have been demonstrated to date. To be flown on the lunar atmosphere and dust environment explorer (LADEE), which is planned for launch by NASA in 2012, it will demonstrate high-rate laser communications from lunar orbit to a transportable ground terminal on the Earth. To support up to 622 Mbps over the approximately 400 thousand kilometer link, the system will make use of a high peak power doped fiber transmitter, a hybrid pointing and tracking system, high efficiency modulation and coding techniques, superconducting photon counting detectors, and a scalable optical collector architecture. It also will support up to 20 Mbps on the optical uplink, plus a highly accurate continuous two-way time of flight measurement capability with the potential to perform ranging with sub-centimeter accuracy to the moving spacecraft. The project is being undertaken by MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL) and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).


    Access

    Download


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    The Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD)


    Contributors:

    Publication date :

    2009


    Remarks:

    Boroson, D.M. et al. “The Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD).” Space Mission Challenges for Information Technology, 2009. SMC-IT 2009. Third IEEE International Conference on. 2009. 23-28. © 2009 IEEE.




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




    Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration

    B. S. Robinson / D. M. Boroson / D. A. Burianek et al. | NTIS | 2011


    The lunar laser communications demonstration

    Robinson, B S / Boroson, D M / Burianek, D A et al. | IEEE | 2011


    The Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD)

    Boroson, D. M. / Scozzafava, J. J. / Murphy, D. V. et al. | IEEE | 2009


    Downlink synchronization for the lunar laser communications demonstration

    Willis, M M / Robinson, B S / Stevens, M L et al. | IEEE | 2011