Palomar Receive Terminal (PRT) for the Mars Laser Communication Demonstration (MLCD) Project

Author

Biswas, Abhijit ; Moision, Bruce ; Roberts, William T. ; Farr, William H. ; Gray, Andrew ; Quirk, Kevin ; Hamkins, Jon ; Cheng, Michael K. ; Gin, Jonathan ; Nakashima, Michael ; Ortiz, Gerardo G. ; Piazzolla, Sabino ; Liebe, Carl Christian ; Losh, David L

Author_Institution

California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena

Volume

95

Issue

10

fYear

2007

Firstpage

2045

Lastpage

2058

Abstract

Significant technological advances were made toward utilizing the Hale telescope for receiving the faint laser communication signals transmitted from an optical transceiver on a spacecraft orbiting Mars. The so-called Palomar receive terminal design, which would have supported nominal downlink data rates of 1-30 Mbps, is described. Testing to validate technologies for near-Sun (3deg from edge of solar disc) daytime operations is also discussed. Finally, a laboratory end-to-end link utilizing a 64-ary pulse-position modulated photon-counting receiver and decoder that achieved predicted near-capacity (within 1.4 dB) performance is described.

Keywords

Mars; astronomical telescopes; optical links; optical modulation; optical receivers; optical transmitters; photon counting; pulse position modulation; space communication links; telecommunication terminals; Hale telescope; MLCD project; Mars laser communication demonstration; Palomar receive terminal design; bit rate 1 Mbit/s to 30 Mbit/s; downlink data rates; end-to-end link; near-sun daytime operation; optical transceiver; photon-counting decoder; photon-counting receiver; pulse-position modulation; Downlink; Laboratories; Mars; Optical receivers; Pulse modulation; Space technology; Space vehicles; Telescopes; Testing; Transceivers; Deep space; laser communication; photon counting; pulse-position modulation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Proceedings of the IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9219

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JPROC.2007.905054

Filename

4384368