The assembled telescope and optical bench assembly for the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration is shown here in a test fixture. The primary mirror is 4 inches in diameter.

Laser Communications

We develop, build, and operate prototype space and airborne laser communication (lasercom) terminals. The technology developed and the lessons learned from these activities are transferred to external partners through participation in standards groups and through the operation of a gold-standard test infrastructure. Our major efforts include demonstration of a high-performance airborne lasercom terminal, design of lasercom interoperability standards, development of a test capability to validate interoperability among various contractor-produced terminals, and investigation into techniques to enable multiple simultaneous lasercom links through a single aperture.

Featured Projects

A schematic showing optical ground terminals and satellites transmitting data via lasercom links across the Earth and to the Moon.
laser communications
A new type of fiber could transmit the high-power light needed for future deep-space science and exploration missions.
A rendition of a communications payload on its spacecraft host, with laser links over the Earth connecting Hawaii and California.
laser communications
Optical communications technologies decades in the making at Lincoln Laboratory were transferred to NASA for its first two-way laser relay communications system.

Advancing Our Research

Events

May
21 - 22
MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, Massachusetts

Featured Publications

Circuit-fed tile-approach configuration for millimeter-wave spatial power combining

Jan 1
IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., Vol. 50, No. 1, Part 1, January 2002, pp. 17-21.

Comparison of two flat reflector-type designs for dual-polarization, dual-band operation

Jul 8
IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Int. Synp. 2001 Digest, Vol. 2, 8-13 July 2001, pp. 288-291.

Accurate modeling of dual dipole and slot elements used with photomixers for coherent terahertz output power

Jun 1
IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., Vol. 49, No. 6, June 2001, pp. 1032-8.