NASAS LASER COMMUNICATIONS RELAY DEMONSTRATION (LCRD) SHOWN IN FIGURE 1 1. THE LASER COMMUNICATIONS RELAY DEMONSTRATION WILL BE AN OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS RELAY SATELLITE THAT WILL BE PLACED IN GEOSYNCHRONOUS ORBIT (GEO) IN THE 2019 TIMEFRAME. THIS GEO SATELLITE WILL HAVE THE CAPABILITY TO RECEIVE AN OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS SIGNAL CALLED THE FORWARD LINK FROM A TRANSMITTING TERMINAL (I.E., FROM A GROUND STATION OR A LEO SATELLITE HOSTING AN ILLUMA MODEM) AT A CHANNEL RATE UP TO 2.88 GBPS AND RELAY IT TO A RECEIVING TERMINAL. INITIALLY, THE LCRD TERMINAL WILL RELAY SIGNALS BETWEEN TWO GROUND STATIONS. ADDITIONAL TERMINALS IN LOW-EARTH ORBIT (LEO) WOULD GREATLY ENHANCE THE UTILITY OF THE LCRD RELAY. THE PURPOSE OF THIS PROCUREMENT IS TO ACQUIRE A MODEM FOR USE AS PART OF A COMPLETE OPTICAL TERMINAL ON THE ISS JEM-EF (INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION JAPANESE EXPERIMENT MODULE - EXPOSED FACILITY) THAT CAN COMMUNICATE WITH THE LCRD IN GEO. A COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE, LOW SIZE, WEIGHT AND POWER (SWAP) OPTICAL MODEM WOULD PAVE THE WAY FOR MORE WIDESPREAD USE OF OPTICAL COMMUNICATION. LEO CONSTELLATIONS OF SATELLITES OUTFITTED WITH SUCH MODEMS COULD RAPIDLY RELAY LARGE AMOUNTS OF DATA FROM LEO SCIENCE MISSIONS VIA THE LCRD GEOSYNCHRONOUS RELAY TO EARTH. IT IS WITH THIS GOAL IN MIND THAT NASAS GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER (GSFC) IS ACQUIRING A COMPACT OPTICAL TRANSMIT AND RECEIVE MODEM COMPATIBLE WITH THE LCRD COMMUNICATIONS FORMAT AND INTERFACE CONTROL DOCUMENTS (ICDS). THIS MODEM HEREAFTER REFERRED TO AS THE INTEGRATED LCRD LEO (LOW-EARTH ORBIT) USER MODEM AND AMPLIFIER (ILLUMA)WILL HAVE THE CAPABILITY TO TAKE DATA FROM ISS AND TRANSMIT IT TO THE LCRD TERMINAL AT GEO WHICH WILL RELAY IT TO THE GROUND.

View the official award record

Our catalog shows awards of $250K+ active within the last 5 years. Need older history or smaller awards? Tell us what you need — we expand by request.