Media
Success Stories: Angular Rate Sensors
(ARS-15) and Actuators
ATA Supports Historic NASA Demonstration of Optical Communications from Lunar Orbit
NASA
successfully completed the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD) in
early October 2013. LLCD flew aboard the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment
Explorer satellite known as LADEE, which won the 2014 Popular Mechanics
Breakthrough Award (click
here to read more about the award). As the first demonstration of
long-range optical communications to support the NASA Space Communications and
Navigation (SCaN) Network Architecture, LLCD demonstrated the transmission of
information via a laser communication link from lunar orbit to the earth at data
rates six times faster than state-of-the-art Ka band radio links. This critical
demonstration validates NASA’s ability to send high-resolution imagery to the
earth on future space exploration missions. “These first results have far
exceeded our expectation,” said Don Cornwell, LLCD manager for NASA. “Just
imagine the ability to transmit huge amounts of data that would take days in a
matter of minutes. We believe laser-based communications is the next paradigm
shift in future space communications.”
ATA
built, tested, and delivered to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL) the enabling components for the laser communications
stable platform subsystem, which is integral to the LLCD system. ATA’s
proprietary Magneto-Hydrodynamic (MHD) angular rate sensor, ARS-15, and its high
efficiency actuators enable submicroradian performance necessary to accomplish
the NASA stringent laser pointing requirements of accuracy less than a half of
an inch over the distance from the moon to the earth. Based on ATA’s
decade-long history of innovations in optical beam stabilization, a government
agency selected ATA to build, test, and deliver multiple space-qualified stable
platforms for a national optical communications demonstration program.
Sources:
Nasa.gov: Historic Demonstration Proves Laser Communication Possible - Oct. 28, 2013
