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Conceptual design of a multi-functional optical instrument is underway for the X2000-Second Delivery Program. The transceiver will perform both free-space optical-communication and science imaging by sharing a common 10-cm aperture telescope.
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The Optical Communications Demonstrator (OCD), under development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), is a laboratory-based lasercomm terminal designed to validate several key technologies, primarily precision beam pointing, high bandwidth tracking, and beacon acquisition.
A recent study of deep space telecommunications systems was performed in support of NASA's Mission to the Solar System planing activity. The results show that high bandwidth communications (greater than 1Mbps) are feasible at high-value planetary targets provided there are investments in the ground and spacecraft communication infrastructure.
The objectives of the GOPEX experiment were to demonstrate laser beam transmission to a deep space spacecraft, to verify beam pointing strategies based on predicts, and to validate optical link performance models.
ACLAIM is a multi-function instrument consisting of a laser communication terminal and an imaging camera that share a common telescope. A single APS- (Active Pixel Sensor) based focal-plane-array is used to perform both the acquisition and tracking (for laser communication) and science imaging functions.
The Free-space Optical Communications Analysis Software (FOCAS) was developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to provide mission planners, systems engineers and communications engineers with an easy to use tool to analyze optical communications link.
With the goal of reducing the surface wavefront error of low-cost multi-meter-diameter mirrors from about 10 waves peak-to-valley (P-V), at lpm wavelength, to approximately 1-wave or less, we describe a method to compensate for slowly varying wavefront aberrations of telescope mirrors. A deformable mirror is utilized in an active optical compensation system. The kMS wavefront error of a 0.3m telescope improved to 0.05 waves (0.26 waves P-V) from the original value of 1.4 waves RMS (6.5 waves P-V), measured at 633nm, and the Strehl ratio improved to 89% from the original value of 0.08%.
A conceptual design study titled Deep-Space Optical Terminals was recently completed for an optical communication technology demonstration from Mars in the 2018 time frame. We report on engineering trades for the entire system, and for individual subsystems including the flight terminal, the ground receiver and the ground transmitter. A point design is described to meet the requirement for greater than 0.25 Gb/s downlink from the nearest distance to Mars of 0.42 AU with a maximum mass and power allocation of 40 kg and 110 W. Furthermore, the concept design addresses link closure at the farthest Mars range of 2.7 AU. Maximum uplink data-rate of 0.3 Mb/s and ranging with 30 cm precision are also addressed.
The GSFC implementation of an Optical Communication System to demonstrate an operational optical communication link for Orion EM-2. It will serve as a base for providing an operational optical communications capability for future Orion missions. GSFC plans to maintain a development path for the optical communication flight terminal to allow commercialization and implementation on future Orion missions. The Orion optical module part of the optical communications flight terminal and its control electronics have a common architecture with the ILLUMA-T optical terminal provided by GSFC for use on the ISS. The plan is to flow data from Orion through the Optical Communication Fight Terminal to the Optical Communication Ground Terminal and reverse. NASA's Orion spacecraft is an exploratory vehicle designed for longer-duration flights beyond the Moon. Following Orion's Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), during which the spacecraft will travel beyond the Moon, enter a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon and return to Earth unmanned, Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2) will see a crewed spacecraft complete a slightly different flight path. First crewed test flight of the Orion spacecraft, currently targeting a June 30, 2022 launch. The mission involves: One revolution in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) parking orbit to verify basic Orion systems functionality and deploy solar arrays. A single 42-hour Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) intermediate checkout orbit allows characterization of the Orion vehicle system performance prior to committing to a cis-lunar flight. Trans Lunar Injection (TLI) burn using Orion Service Module (SM) main engine, which sends Orion on a lunar flyby and free return. Skip reentry at lunar return velocities to splashdown off the coast of San Diego. Total mission duration is approximately 10 days. EM-2 is the first crewed mission of the Orion Spacecraft that crew brings more video up/downloads, file transfers, and real-time chats with family back home and high-rate communications enables live HD streaming for Crew conferences, Public Affairs Office (PAO) events, and significant mission events. Also still collecting vehicle data on numerous Orion subsystems via Development Flight Instrumentation (DFI) allows large data volume returns sooner for DFI and future science payloads, as opposed to waiting for end-of-mission. O2O is a demonstration of operational utility system tested as a Developmental Test Objective (DTO) and not required to meet mission requirements/success/ Flight Test Objectives (FTO). EM-2 architecture is as close to future mission operational architecture as possible.Orion subsystems (video, DFI, etc.) expected to generate ~250 GB of data in the first 24 hours of flight. Total data generated over the mission estimated to be more than 400 GBUsing S-Band alone, Orion limited to ~ 6GB of data downlink per day. Because of this limitation, Orion is planning to limit live video downlinks on EM-1 in order to downlink high priority fileswith 1 hour/day of Optical Communication, Orion could downlink ~6x more data per day (~ 36GB/day).The optical communication system is capable of multiple data rates up to at least 80 Mbps downlink for the transfer of Orion data to Earth while Orion is operating in the lunar vicinity.
Conceptual design of a multi-functional optical instrument is underway for the X2000-Second Delivery Program.
The Terabyte Infrared Delivery (TBIRD) program will establish an optical communication link from a 6Unanosatellite in low-Earth orbit to a ground station at burst rates up to 200 Gbps. The system is capable of reliable data delivery from a 2 TB storage buffer on the payload to a ground terminal in the presence of atmospheric fading. An overview of the communication architecture for TBIRD is provided as well as results from communications performance testing of the 3U lasercom payload prior to spacecraft integration. Launch is scheduled for mid-year 2022.
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This paper studies the simulated performance of the Deep Space Optical Communication (DSOC) laser downlink pointing control system that has a pointing requirement at the sub-microradian scale. To achieve the required pointing precision, the DSOC Flight Laser Transceiver (FLT) point-ahead mirror (PAM) employs piezoelectric actuators, which are widely used in precision applications due to their high motion resolution, rapid response, and high output forces. However, a piezoelectric actuator's performance is often limited by nonlinearities in their response, most significantly hysteresis. To study the effect of hysteresis on our simulated pointing performance, an invertible hysteresis model is developed using the Classical Prantdl-Ishlinskii (CPI) method. The simulation includes models of DSOC hardware and electronic system components based on key parameters (bias, frequency response, noise), with the hysteresis modeled in the PAM piezo actuator dynamics. A Proportional-Integral controller provides feedback with measurements from two potential sources: strain gauge sensors or a photon-counting camera. To compensate for hysteresis behavior, a feedforward inverse CPI hysteresis model is implemented in the control system. Two CPI models are built using different sampling methods (uniform sampling and cosine spacing) and controller performance is compared. For the maximum command range of ±400 μrad at 1 mHz, results show that the feedforward combined with feedback control reduces output tracking error by 50% or 58% (to 0.20 or 0.38 μrad) compared to feedback control alone (from 0.40 or 0.90 μrad), corresponding to the uniform-sampled and cosine-sampled CPI models, respectively.