MLCD: Overview of NASA's mars laser communications demonstration system

NASA is presently overseeing a project to create the world's first free-space laser communications system that can be operated over a range much larger than the near-earth ranges that have been demonstrated to date. To be flown on the Mars Telecom Orbiter, planned for launch by NASA in 2009, it will demonstrate high-rate laser communications from Mars orbit to one of several planned earth receiver sites. To support 1-10 Mbps over the up to 400 million kilometer link, the system will make use of a high peak-power doped-fiber transmitter, a hybrid pointing and tracking system high efficiency modulation and coding techniques, photon-counting detectors, and novel optical collector architectures that can point near the sun. The project is being undertaken by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL,) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).