Récemment, in order to improve NASA's espace communications capabilities, NASA plans to send a technology demonstration called the Integrated LCRD Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal (ILLUMA-T) to the space station in 2023. Together, ILLUMA-T and the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), to be launch in December 2021, will complete NASA's first two-way, end-to-end laser relay system.
Avantages de Laser Communication Systèmes
Laser communication systems use invisible infrared light to send and receive information at much higher data rates. While the original radio-frequency system took about nine weeks to send a complete map of Mars back to Earth, it took about nine days using lasers. Thus, with higher data rates, the mission can send more images and video to Earth in a single transmission. Once installed on the space station, ILLUMA-T will demonstrate the benefits of higher data transfer rates for LEO missions. Laser communications provide greater mission flexibility and a quick way to access data from space. NASA is currently integrating this technology in near-Earth, lunar, and deep space demonstrations.
In addition to the benefits of faster data rates, laser systems also offer key advantages in spacecraft design due to leur lighter weight and reduced energy consumption. ILLUMA-T, which is approxly the size of a standard refrigerator, will be secured to an external module on the space station for demonstrations through the LCRD. Actuellement, the LCRD is demonstrating the benefits of laser relay in geosynchronous orbit (22,000 miles from Earth) to further refine NASA's laser capabilities by transmitting data and conducting experiments between the two ground stations. Once ILLUMA-T entre la station, le terminal sera envoyera haute résolution données, y compris images et vidéo, à le LCRD at a taux de 1,200 mégabits per seconde. The data will then be envoyed from the LCRD to ground stations in Hawaii and California. This demonstration will show how laser communications can benefit NEO missions.
ILLUMA-T is being launched as the payload for SpaceX's 29th Commercial Resupply Services mission for NASA. During the first two weeks after launch, ILLUMA-T will be removed from the trunk of the Dragon spacecraft and installed on the space station's Japanese Experiment Module Exposure Facility (JEM-EF). Once the payload is installed, the ILLUMA-T team will conduct initial tests and on-orbit checks. Once that is complete, the team will push toward the payload's first light - a major milestone for the mission, which will transmit the first laser light to the LCRD through its optical telescope. Once the first light is present, data transmission and laser communication experiments will begin and continue throughout the planned mission.
Test lasers dans différents scénarios
In the future, operational laser communications will complement radio frequency systems, which many space missions still rely on to transmit data back to Earth. While ILLUMA-T is not the first mission to test laser communications in space, it brings NASA one step closer to the practical application of this technology.
In addition to LCRD, ILLUMA-T's predecessors include the 2022 TeraByte InfraRed Delivery System, which is currently testing laser communications on a small CubeSat in near-Earth orbit, and the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration, which, during the 2014 Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer mission, sent data back and forth between lunar orbit and Earth; and the 2017 Lasercomm Science optical payload, which demonstrated how laser communications can accelerate the flow of information between Earth and space compared to radio signals.
Tester la capacité de laser communications à produire plus élevé données transfert taux dans une variété de scénarios aider la aérospatiale communauté plus affiner capacités pour future missions vers la Lune, Mars, et espace profond.
