O2O Table Moutain Facility (O2OTMF)

Develop Optical-to-Orion (O2O) ground terminal (GT) at the JPL Table Mountain Facility (O2OGT TMF), for transmitting and receiving laser signals to/from the Space Terminal Element (STE) on Orion, in order to enable bi-directional communications and near real time time-of-flight estimates.

Support a GT to realize Detailed Test Objective (DTO) to demonstrate the free-space optical communications operations from lunar distances with one of two weather diverse GT’s for streaming user data to and from the Mission Control Center (MCC) at Johnson Space Center (JSC).

Goals:

• Use the JPL Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory (OCTL) at TMF to develop 1 of 2 GT’s
• Develop laser transmitter(s) for link acquisition and high-rate uplink communications
• Develop a receiver that conforms to the High Photon Efficiency standard and ethernet transport to the O2O Ground segment (O2O GS) for interfacing to the JSC MCC
• Develop networking interfaces and voice loop connecting O2O GS and MCC
• Transmit and receive user data, telemetry and weather data from TMF

Without ground infrastructure, extraordinary science and exploration data would not make it to researchers on Earth. LCRD’s ground segment will be critical to the success of the mission, providing engineers with the opportunity to test and refine laser communications. In turn, LCRD will usher in a new era of laser communications, where missions will have unprecedented access to insights gleaned from satellites and probes in space.

• Gbps data rates
• High rate science data
• HD video

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 6) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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