Bernard L. Edwards

MLCD: overview of NASA's Mars laser communications demonstration system

NASA is presently overseeing a project to create the worlds first free-space laser communications system that can be operated over a range much larger than the near-earth ranges that have been demonstrated to date. To be flown on the Mars Telecom Orbiter, planned for launch by NASA in 2009, it will demonstrate high-rate laser communications from Mars orbit to one of several planned earth receiver sites. To support 1-10 Mbps over the up to 400 million 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, photon-counting detectors, and novel optical collector architectures that can point near the sun. The project is being undertaken by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL), and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Overview of the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Project

Abstract : This paper provides an overview of the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Project (LCRD), a joint project between NASA?s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (JPL), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL). LCRD will provide two years of continuous high data rate optical communications in an operational environment demonstrating how optical communications can meet NASA?s growing need for higher data rates, or for the same data rate provided by a comparable RF system, how it enables lower power, lower mass communications systems on user spacecraft. In addition, LCRD?s architecture will allow it to serve as a testbed in space for the development of additional symbol coding, link and network layer protocols, etc. This paper reviews the current concepts and designs for the flight and ground optical communications terminals, the critical technologies required, and the concept of operations. It reports preliminary conclusions from several trade studies conducted at GSFC, JPL, and MIT/LL. The flight optical communications terminals will be flown on a commercial communications satellite in geosynchronous orbit to be launched no earlier than December 2016, and will demonstrate a technology critical for NASA?s Next Generation Tracking and Data Relay Satellite.

Mars laser communication demonstration: what it would have been

The Mars Laser Communications Demonstration Project completed a preliminary system design for sending data at 1-30 Mbps from a spacecraft orbiting Mars. The flight transceiver diameter was 30.6 cm, transmitting 5 W average laser power at 1064 nm and using 32- and 64-ary pulse position modulation (PPM). A ground network comprised of two receive terminals (5-m and 1.6-m effective diameter) and two transmit terminals for sending 1076 nm lasers would have been used to communicate with the transceiver.

The Mars laser communications demonstration project: truly ultralong-haul optical transport

We present an overview of the Mars laser communications demonstration (MLCD), a joint project between NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (JPL), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL). MLCDs goal is to demonstrate the first high-rate, freespace laser communications link from deep space back to Earth. The lasercom flight terminal will be flown on the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, to be launched by NASA in 2009, and will demonstrate a technology which has the potential of vastly improving NASAs ability to communicate throughout the solar system.

An Optical Communications Pathfinder for the Next Generation Tracking and Data Relay Satellite

This paper provides an overview of NASAs Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Project (LCRD), a joint project between NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology (JPL), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL). LCRD will provide a minimum of two years of high data rate optical communications services in geosynchronous orbit (GEO), demonstrating how optical communications can meet NASA’s and other agencies’ growing need for higher data rates. Two optical communications terminals will be flown on a SSL commercial communications satellite in GEO to be launched no earlier than December 2017, and will demonstrate a technology critical for NASA’s Next Generation Tracking and Data Relay Satellite. This paper will discuss the results of the recent Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration, describe the remaining challenges for an optical relay network, and discuss how the LCRD mission will be a pathfinder for that future system.

Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) update and the path towards optical relay operations

This paper provides a concept for an evolution of NASAs optical communications near Earth relay architecture. NASAs Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), a joint project between NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory — California Institute of Technology (JPL), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL). LCRD will provide a minimum of two years of high data rate optical communications service experiments in geosynchronous orbit (GEO), following launch in 2019. This paper will provide an update of the LCRD mission status and planned capabilities and experiments, followed by a discussion of the path from LCRD to operational network capabilities.

A Day in the Life of the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Project

This presentation provides an overview of the planned concept of operations for the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Project (LCRD), a joint project among NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (JPL), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MITLL). LCRD will provide at least two years of bi-directional optical communications at user data rates of up to 1.244 Gbps in an operational environment. The project lays the ground work for establishing communications architecture and protocols, and developing the communications hardware and support infrastructure, concluding in a demonstration of optical communications potential to meet NASAs growing need for higher data rates for future science and exploration missions. A pair of flight optical communications terminals will reside on a single commercial communications satellite in geostationary orbit; the two ground optical communications terminals will be located in Southern California and Hawaii. This paper summarizes the current LCRD architecture and key systems for the demonstration, focusing on what it will take to operate an optical communications relay that can support space-to-space, space-to-air, and space-to-ground optical links.

An overview of NASA’s latest efforts in optical communications

This paper provides an overview of NASAs latest efforts in developing and deploying optical communications. It focuses on NASAs flagship Near Earth effort, the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Project (LCRD), a joint project among NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (JPL), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL). LCRD will provide at least two years of bi-directional optical communications at user data rates of up to 1.244 Gbps in an operational environment. This paper will provide an update on the project. This paper will also touch on NASAs efforts for a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) space optical terminal, developments for future deep space optical systems, and address NASAs latest effort in international standardization.

A geosynchronous orbit optical communications relay architecture

NASA is planning to fly a Next Generation Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) next decade. While the requirements and architecture for that satellite are unknown at this time, NASA is investing in communications technologies that could be deployed on the satellite to provide new communications services. One of those new technologies is optical communications. The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) project, scheduled for launch in December 2017 as a hosted payload on a commercial communications satellite, is a critical pathfinder towards NASA providing optical communications services on the Next Generation TDRS. While it is obvious that a small to medium sized optical communications terminal could be flown on a GEO satellite to provide support to Near Earth missions, it is also possible to deploy a large terminal on the satellite to support Deep Space missions. Onboard data processing and Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) are two additional technologies that could be used to optimize optical communications link services and enable additional mission and network operations. This paper provides a possible architecture for the optical communications augmentation of a Next Generation TDRS and touches on the critical technology work currently being done at NASA. It will also describe the impact of clouds on such an architecture and possible mitigation techniques.

Mission concepts utilizing a Laser Communications and DTN-based GEO relay architecture

Laser Communications and Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) are two key technologies in development for enhancement of future generation space communications. Laser Communications or lasercom holds the potential for orders of magnitude increases in data rates while also reducing communications system size, weight, and power. DTN will allow for networked communications across space links maximizing network capacity and scalability. These two technologies combined on a geosynchronous Earth relay satellite will enable new and enhanced mission concepts. The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) project, scheduled for launch in December 2017, will demonstrate these technologies and address the remaining challenges for the new architecture. This paper describes mission concepts that will be demonstrated as part of LCRD with an emphasis on how lasercom and DTN will enable and enhance future mission operations and data return.