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 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). MLCD´s 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 NASA´s ability to communicate throughout the solar system.