Lasers & Sources

Laser communications from LGS to relay HD-quality video from the Moon

Oct. 13, 2018

The optical modem will enable broadband data communications to and from the Orion lunar-orbiting crew vehicle.

IMAGE: The LGS Innovations laser-based modem will convert the data generated on the Orion spacecraft to an optical signal, allowing it to be beamed from the vicinity of the Moon to a receiver on Earth; shown here is the NASA Orion crew module.

LGS Innovations (Herndon, VA), a technology company providing specialized mission-critical communication research and solutions, will be supporting the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Orion EM-2 Optical Communications (O2O) project. LGS Innovations will provide an optical modem that will enable broadband data communications to and from the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle designed to take humans into lunar orbit.

Laser communications, the next-generation space communications technology, can transmit data over long distances at rates up to 100 times faster than traditional radio frequency systems.

"We're proud to support yet another NASA project with advanced optical technology to help meet the ever-increasing requirements for more bandwidth and faster connections," said Kevin Kelly, LGS Innovations CEO. "Fast and reliable communications are key to the success of exploration missions and can transform the work and life of space crews."

The LGS Innovations modem will convert the data generated on the Orion spacecraft to an optical signal, allowing it to be beamed from the vicinity of the Moon to a receiver on Earth. It will also be capable of receiving the optical signal from Earth and converting it to data for the spacecraft.

LGS Innovations was selected by MIT Lincoln Laboratory, a Department of Defense Research and Development Laboratory that is managing the contract. LGS is expected to deliver the modem in late 2019 to help maintain NASA's Orion schedule. The advanced free space optical capability will continue to push forward space exploration and can be suitable for commercial applications such as satellite communications networks.

LGS Innovations is helping NASA adopt laser communications for other missions with technologies such as the first deep-space laser transmitter for the Deep Space Optical Communications project, and a free-space laser modem that will fly aboard the International Space Station as the first demonstration of a fully operational, end-to-end optical communications system.

SOURCE: LGS Innovations; https://www.lgsinnovations.com/lgs-innovations-laser-technology-bring-hd-video-moon/

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.