TBIRD 200-Gbps CubeSat Downlink: System Architecture and Mission Plan

Since launch in May 2022, NASA's TeraByte Infrared Delivery (TBIRD) program has successfully demonstrated 100-Gbps and 200-Gbps laser communication downlinks from a 6U CubeSat in low-Earth orbit to a ground station. The TBIRD system operates during 5-minute passes over the ground station and has demonstrated an error-free downlink transfer of > 1 Terabyte (TB) in a single pass. This paper presents an overview of the architecture, link operations, and system performance results to date.

Section: Performance Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On-orbit demonstration of 200-Gbps laser communication downlink from the TBIRD CubeSat

Schieler

Riesing²,

Bilyeu³

et al. 2023

“…The 70cm aperture of the LCOT receive telescope should be sufficient to allow receiving 100s of Mbps from lunar distances from a space terminal like that used in the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration, and the 1.2Gbps DPSK downlink from the LCRD space terminal now in geosynchronous orbit. Link budget estimates also indicate that the LCOT optical system (including the AO) should be capable of receiving the 200Gbps downlink from the TBIRD cubesat [5,6] in LEO.…”

Section: Capabilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

NASA’s Low-Cost Optical Terminal (LCOT) at Goddard Space Flight Center

Lafon

Bai

Caroglanian

et al. 2023

This paper provides the status of ongoing work at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to build a low-cost flexible ground terminal for optical communication. For laser communication to be cost-effective for future missions, a global network of flexible optical terminals must be put in place. There is a need for a single ground terminal design capable of supporting multiple missions ranging from LEO to lunar distances. NASA's Low-Cost Optical Terminal (LCOT) has a single modular design that can be quickly reconfigured to support different laser communications missions. The LCOT prototype uses a 70cm commercially available telescope designed with optical and quantum communications in mind. This telescope is currently being integrated with a state-of-the-art adaptive optics system, and novel high-power laser amplifier demonstrate its utility as an optical communications receiver by receiving a downlink from the recently launched Laser Communication Relay Demonstration (LCRD). LCOT uses commercially available components wherever possible, and where commercial options are not available, the LCOT team works with vendors to create commercial options. This paper discusses the development progress for the blueprint of NASA's future global ground terminal network.

“…Of these, the TBIRD demonstration is the closest performance match to the EHE application. TBIRD was recently launched in May 2022 and demonstrates up to 200 Gbps communications from low-earth orbit to ground in a cubesat package [20][21][22]. The TBIRD payload is shown in Figure 5 (left).…”

Section: Relevant Recent Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-rate 256+ Gbit/s laser communications for enhanced high-resolution imaging using space-based very long baseline interferometry (VLBI)

Wang

Bilyeu²,

Boroson³

et al. 2023

Self Cite

Space-based VLBI imaging can dramatically improve state-of-the-art astronomical radio-imaging resolution by enabling significantly longer baseline distances and eliminating atmospheric-attenuation constraints on RF carrier imaging wavelength. However, smaller space-based apertures and sensitivity constraints impose challenging recorded-data downlink-rate requirements, potentially to 256 Gbit/s. Laser communications is a promising option for realizing such highrate long-distance downlinks with modest power and aperture demands. Here, we present a scalable lasercom architecture that can enable high-rate long-distance downlinks needed for enhanced space-based VLBI imaging from geosynchronous orbit (GEO).