The mars laser communication demonstration

Abstract

This paper provides the status of the Mars laser communication demonstration project, a joint project between NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL). It reviews the current ideas/designs for the flight and ground segments, the critical technologies required, and the concept of operations. The laser communication (lasercom) flight terminal be flown on the Mars Telecom Orbiter (MTO) to be launched by NASA in 2009, and demonstrate a technology which has the potential of vastly improving NASA's ability to communicate throughout the solar system.