NASA’s next laser communication mission recently passed a Preliminary
Design Review (PDR), another major milestone towards the launch of the
Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) scheduled for 2017.
The PDR is a major agency evaluation milestone of the engineering
plan to execute the build and launch of LCRD onboard a Space Systems
Loral commercial satellite. “The board concluded that the LCRD review
was a resounding success,” said Tupper Hyde, chairperson of the PDR.
“They met all review success criteria and the LCRD team is ready to
proceed with mission plans to conduct this ground-breaking
demonstration.”
The LCRD project is NASA’s first long duration optical communications
mission. This demonstration will build from NASA’s highly successful
Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD) mission. LCRD will
conduct a two-year demonstration of optical relay services to determine
how well the system operates and collect long-term performance data. The
Goddard team leads the project with significant support from MIT
Lincoln Laboratory, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Space
Systems/Loral (SSL).
Space laser communications technology has the potential to provide 10
to 100 times higher data rates than traditional radio frequency systems
for the same mass and power. This has now been proven on NASA’s LLCD
mission. LCRD is a longer duration mission that will provide the
necessary knowledge and experience to operate future mission critical
optical communications systems.
The LCRD mission is a necessary technology development step that will
allow NASA to go from LLCD’s technology “existence proof” to
demonstrating reliable optical services. “The LCRD team demonstrated
that the mission design fulfills NASA requirements and the mission
architecture will meet the agency’s needs, goals and objectives,” said
Michael Weiss, project manager for LCRD. “We are very pleased that we
are ready to proceed with flight hardware activities.”
Last year NASA awarded Space Systems Loral (SSL) of Palo Alto,
Calif., a $3 million contract to initiate the process of hosting the
LCRD mission on a Loral commercial satellite. Positioning LCRD aboard
the commercial communication satellite platform is a cost effective
approach to place LCRD in orbit. The agreement marked the first time
NASA has contracted to fly a payload on an American-manufactured
commercial communications satellite.
When launched, NASA’s technology demonstration payload will be
positioned above the equator, a prime location for line-of-sight to
other orbiting satellites and ground stations. The SSL satellite will
provide the right location, space availability, and power systems needed
to conduct the space laser communications tests.
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