The lunar laser communications demonstration

Author

Robinson, Bryan S. ; Boroson, Don M. ; Burianek, Dennis A. ; Murphy, Daniel V.

Author_Institution

MIT Lincoln Lab., Lexington, MA, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

11-13 May 2011

Firstpage

54

Lastpage

57

Abstract

The Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration represents NASA´s first attempt to demonstrate optical communications from a lunar orbiting spacecraft to an Earth-based ground receiver. A low size, weight and power optical terminal will be integrated onto the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft, presently scheduled to launch in 2013. LLCD will demonstrate duplex optical communications between this small space terminal and a multi-aperture photon-counting ground terminal at downlink data rates of up to 622 Mbps and uplink data rates of up to 20 Mbps.

Keywords

optical fibre communication; optical receivers; space communication links; space vehicles; Earth-based ground receiver; LADEE spacecraft; NASA; lunar atmosphere and dust environment explorer; lunar laser communications; lunar orbiting spacecraft; optical communications; Downlink; Moon; Optical fiber communication; Optical fibers; Optical receivers; Telescopes; Free-space optical communications; lasercom; lunar laser communications demonstration; photon counting receiver;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Space Optical Systems and Applications (ICSOS), 2011 International Conference on

Conference_Location

Santa Monica, CA

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-9686-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICSOS.2011.5783709

Filename

5783709