NASA and partners have achieved an airground laser communication link with a throughput of 200 gigabits per second

NASA and its partners have achieved another major milestone for the future of space communications -- 200 gigabits per second (Gbps) throughput on an air-to-ground optical link between an orbiting satellite and Earth, the highest data rate ever achieved through optical communications technology.

These data rates are achieved by using laser communication, which packages information into light wave oscillations in the laser, rather than using radio waves as most space communication systems do.

The communication link is implemented by the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) system, which was put into orbit by NASA's Pathfinder Technology Demonstration 3 (PTD-3) satellite, And surpassed the previous 100 Gbps milestone demonstrated by the same team in June 2022. With this fast connection, TBIRD can send terabytes of test data to Earth within six minutes of passing through the ground station. One terabyte is equivalent to about 500 hours of high-definition video.

"Reaching 100 Gbps in June was groundbreaking, and now we've doubled the data rate -- a capability that will change the way we communicate in space," Beth Keer, TBIRD mission manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"Imagine the power of space science instruments when they can be designed to take full advantage of advances in probe speed and sensitivity, further advancing AI's ability to process large amounts of data. Laser communication is a TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) system of NASA

MIT TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD)

Will enable future scientific discoveries."

Currently, NASA's most commonly used space communication technology is radio, which sends data in a similar way to how radio broadcasts are sent to car radios or cell phones communicate with cell towers. Given NASA's goal of a long-term presence on the moon and future missions to Mars, more efficient communications are essential for the smooth operation of missions and effective science.

The super-fast capabilities of laser communications, also known as optical communications, will make it possible to transmit more data from space each time. More information about any information that scientific instruments might be studying - whether it's images of another world, data about space radiation or something else - means that scientists on Earth have more data to work with, leading to life and the discoveries needed to live on other worlds.

Cubesats such as PTD-3 are ideal spacecraft for testing communications technology because of their cost effectiveness and small size. The PTD-3 is the size of two stacked cereal boxes, and it carries a TBIRD payload no larger than a regular tissue box. The PTD-3 was built and operated for NASA by Terran Orbital of Irvine, Calif. The TBIRD payload was designed and built by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory (MIT-LL) in Lexington, Massachusetts.

The PTD-3 launches into orbit from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida during SpaceX's Transporter-5 ride-sharing mission and synchronizes with Earth's orbit around the sun, putting the small satellite into a "fixed" position relative to the sun. This means the PTD-3 is capable of passing through ground stations on Earth at the same time twice a day, so TBIRD can test this air-to-ground communication link.

TBIRD's data transfer milestone was achieved through collaboration across NASA centers and other agencies. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland worked with MIT-LL to develop the TBIRD mission and concept, while NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, developed and managed the PTD-3 program and mission.

In addition to building the PTD-3 spacecraft, Terran Orbital is working with MIT Lincoln Laboratory to integrate the TBIRD payload onto the spacecraft, manage the launch and operate the spacecraft. The ground station is located at the Optical Communications Test Laboratory (OCTL) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. OCTL currently supports a variety of optical communication missions and has been modified to accommodate the TBIRD system requirements and unique TBIRD communication ground hardware provided by MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

With TBIRD successfully demonstrating laser communication as a practical tool for transmitting data from space to the ground, future NASA missions could integrate the technology into their designs. Data from space has never taken a faster path back to Earth.

The technology demonstration is a partnership between NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program, under NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate, and the Small Spacecraft Technology Program, under NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate. Development of the TBIRD technology and payload was funded by SCaN, and the PTD-3 demonstration mission is part of the PTD mission series, funded by the Small Spacecraft Technology Program.

Source: Laser Net