Optical CDMA for CubeSats, Year 1

Develop an end to end optical CubeSat system architecture. Define all signal processing components required for successful operation suitable for hardware implementation and testing in the future. Perform software simulations to validate the analysis.

The designed system has advantages over other types of multiple access systems - Time-Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Wavelength-Division Multiple Access (WDMA), Space-Division Multiple Access (SDMA). All transmit lasers and optical receivers on the CubeSats could have identical implementation except for the signature codes that separate them. Optical CDMA communications between a constellation of CubeSats and an Earth station does not need bandwidth allocations and the number of CubeSats can be increased with graceful degradation in performance.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — 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.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.