NASA laser communication system sets record - Data transmissions to and from Moon

NASA's Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) has made history using a pulsed laser beam to transmit data over the 239,000 miles between the moon and Earth at a record-breaking download rate of 622 megabits per second (Mbps).

LLCD is NASA's first system for two-way communication using a laser instead of radio waves.

It also has demonstrated an error-free data upload rate of 20 Mbps transmitted from the primary ground station in New Mexico to the spacecraft currently orbiting the moon.

"LLCD is the first step on our roadmap toward building the next generation of space communication capability," said Badri Younes, NASA's deputy associate administrator for space communications and navigation (SCaN) in Washington.

"We are encouraged by the results of the demonstration to this point, and we are confident we are on the right path to introduce this new capability into operational service soon."

Since NASA first ventured into space, it has relied on radio frequency (RF) communication.

However, RF is reaching its limit as demand for more data capacity continues to increase.

The development and deployment of laser communications will enable NASA to extend communication capabilities such as increased image resolution and 3-D video transmission from deep space.

"The goal of LLCD is to validate and build confidence in this technology so that future missions will consider using it," said Don Cornwell, LLCD manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"This unique ability developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory has incredible application possibilities."

LLCD is a short-duration experiment and the precursor to NASA's long-duration demonstration, the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD).

LCRD is a part of the agency's Technology Demonstration Missions Program, which is working to develop crosscutting technology capable of operating in the rigors of space. It is scheduled to launch in 2017.

LLCD is hosted aboard NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), launched in September from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. LADEE is a 100-day robotic mission operated by the agency's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. LADEE's mission is to provide data that will help NASA determine whether dust caused the mysterious glow astronauts observed on the lunar horizon during several Apollo missions.

It also will explore the moon's atmosphere. Ames designed, developed, built, integrated and tested LADEE, and manages overall operations of the spacecraft.

The LLCD system, flight terminal and primary ground terminal at NASA's White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, N.M., were developed by the Lincoln Laboratory at MIT.

The Table Mountain Optical Communications Technology Laboratory operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is participating in the demonstration.

A third ground station operated by the European Space Agency on Tenerife in the Canary Islands also will be participating in the demonstration.

More information: esc.gsfc.nasa.gov/267/271.html

NASA’s New Horizon Spacecraft sets new Proximity-to-Pluto Record

NASA New Horizons spacecraft has broken the 'closest approach to Pluto' limits, set by NASA's Voyager 1 in January 1986.

On Dec. 2, New Horizons, after 2,143 days of high speed flight of more than a million kilometers per day, broke the 1.58 billion kilometers set by Voyager 1.

"Although we're still a long way - 1.5 billion kilometers from Pluto - we're now in new territory as the closest any spacecraft has ever gotten to Pluto, and getting closer every day by over a million kilometers, says New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute.

As it approaches Pluto, New Horizons will continue to set proximity-to-Pluto records every day until its closest approach of about 7,767 miles (12,500 kilometers) from the planet on July 14, 2015.

At its current distance to Pluto, the planet remains just a faint point of light as seen from New Horizons. However, in mid-2015, the planet and its moons will be so close that the spacecraft's cameras will be able to spot small features of the planet.

"We've come a long way across the solar system," says Glen Fountain, New Horizons project manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

"When we launched [on Jan. 19, 2006] it seemed like our 10-year journey would take forever, but those years have been passing us quickly. We're almost six years in flight, and it's just about three years until our encounter begins."

Currently, New Horizons is in hibernation with all but its most essential systems turned off and speeding away from the Sun at more than 55,500 kilometers per hour.

According to operators at the Applied Physics Lab, they will "wake" the spacecraft in January for a month of testing and maintenance activities.

NASA interplanetary spacecraft sets record

The space agency said a spacecraft's change in velocity refers to its ability to change its path through space by using its own rocket engines.

To reach its present location in the asteroid belt, NASA said Dawn had to fire its three engines -- one at a time -- for a cumulative total of 620 days.

During that time, it used less than 165 kilograms (363 pounds) of xenon propellant.

NASA says its ion-propelled Dawn spacecraft -- en route to explore two of the asteroid belt's most massive objects -- has set a record for velocity change.

Officials said the record previously held by NASA's Deep Space 1 -- the first interplanetary spacecraft to use ion propulsion -- fell Saturday when Dawn's accumulated mission acceleration exceeded 4.3 kilometers per second -- 9,600 mph.

In one year's time, Dawn's ion propulsion system can increase the spacecraft's speed by 8,850 kilometers per hour (5,500 mph), while consuming the equivalent of only 16 gallons of fuel, NASA said.

Dawn's 3-billion-mile mission includes exploration of asteroid Vesta in 2011 and 2012, and the dwarf planet Ceres in 2015.

Dawn, launched in September 2007, is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.