NASA to Construct First Integrated-Photonics Modem for High-Speed, Laser-Based Communications

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A research team at NASA team is planning to construct a unique type of communications modem, which will utilize an advanced, potentially radical technology capable of impacting numerous industries; ranging from medical imaging, telecommunications, and national defense to advanced manufacturing.

As part of NASA’s multi-year Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), the space agency will be testing the world’s first integrated-photonics modem aboard the International Space Station in 2020.

The cell phone-sized device integrates optics-based functions, such as switches, lasers, and wires, onto a microchip, which is similar to an integrated circuit installed in all electronics hardware. Once the modem is aboard the space station, the Integrated LCRD Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) User Modem and Amplifier (ILLUMA) will act as a low-Earth orbit terminal for NASA’s LCRD, representing one more capability for high-speed, laser-based communications.

Data Rates Demand New Technology

NASA has been depending on radio frequency (RF)-based communications since it was established in 1958.

Don Cornwell, director of NASA’s Advanced Communication and Navigation Division within the space Communications and Navigation Program, stated that current missions demand higher data rates than in the past, and the need for LCRD has become more critical. The space Communications and Navigation Program is funding the development of the modem.

LCRD has the potential to alter NASA’s method of transmitting and receiving data, video and other information. Lasers will be utilized by LCRD to encode and transmit data, at rates spanning 10 to 100 times quicker than current existing communications equipment, requiring less power and mass.

Similar to how scientists currently track hurricanes and other changes in climate and environment on Earth, this breakthrough technology would be able to provide high-resolution measurements and video, from spacecraft flying over planets across the solar system. This would enable NASA scientists to gain precise data regarding the conditions on other worlds.

The project is stipulated to start operations in 2019, and this is not NASA’s first venture into laser communications.

In 2013, a payload onboard the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) exhibited record-breaking download and upload speeds, to and from lunar orbit at 622 and 20 Mbps, respectively.

The plan for LCRD is for it to be an operational system after a preliminary two-year experimental phase. It consists of a hosted payload, and two specially equipped ground stations. The aim of the project is to demonstrate a fully operational system in the two years from geosynchronous orbit to ground stations. Cornwell said that once NASA demonstrates that capability, it plans to utilize ILLUMA to assess communications between geosynchronous and low-Earth-orbit spacecraft.

An Exceptional Terminal

ILLUMA combines a new technology, known as integrated photonics, which is expected to alter any technology that utilizes light. This includes everything from chemical detectors, spectrometers, and surveillance systems to Internet communications over fiber optic cable.

Integrated photonics are like an integrated circuit, except they use light rather than electrons to perform a wide variety of optical functions.

Don Cornwell, Director, NASA's Advanced Communication and Navigation Division

Modern developments in meta-materials, nanostructures, and silicon technologies have extended the range of applications for these highly integrated optical chips. They could be lithographically mass printed, similar to electronic circuitry that is in use today, further bringing down the costs of photonic devices.

“This technology will enable all types of NASA missions, not just optical communications on LCRD,” Cornwell added.

We’ve pushed this for a long time. The technology will simplify optical system design. It will reduce the size and power consumption of optical devices, and improve reliability, all while enabling new functions from a lower-cost system. It is clear that our strategy to leverage integrated photonic circuitry will lead to a revolution in Earth and planetary-space communications as well as in science instruments.

Mike Krainak, Modem Project Lead, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Krainak not only heads the development of ILLUMA but is also the representative for NASA on the country’s first consortium to advance integrated photonics. The non-profit American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics, located in Rochester, New York, is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, and provides a platform to the top technological talent from across the country to achieve worldwide leadership in integrated photonics.

Krainak has also been appointed as head of integrated photonics by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) for its Space Technology Research Grants Program, which is involved in early-stage innovations. Recently, this program announced various research awards under this technology area.

First Step in Demonstrating Photonics

Krainak and the team working on the NASA project plan to decrease the size of the terminal, which is currently about the size of two toaster ovens. This challenge is a lot simpler now, as all light-related functions can be placed inside a microchip.

Krainak states that although the modem will soon be using an optic fiber, ILLUMA is the first step in constructing and demonstrating an integrated photonics circuit, which will finally embed these functions onto a chip. ILLUMA will ensure flight-qualification of the technology, and will illustrate a core capability for future spacecraft. Besides communicating to ground stations, satellites of the future will require the ability to communicate with one another, he added.

What we want to do is provide a faster exchange of data to the scientific community. Modems have to be inexpensive. They have to be small. We also have to keep their weight down.

Mike Krainak, Modem Project Lead, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

The aim is to create and showcase the technology, and then make it accessible to industry and other government agencies, developing an economy of scale that will additionally bring down expenses. “This is the pay off,” he said.

Krainak stated that although integrated photonics holds promise to transform space-based science and inter-planetary communications, its impact on terrestrial applications is equally important. For instance, its use in data centers, which are expensive, huge facilities housing servers to save, manage and distribute data through fiber optic cables.

Integrated photonics also would be able to greatly decrease the need for, and size of these facilities by allowing the printing of the optic hardware required to operate them onto a chip, like today’s electronic circuitry. As well as reducing costs, the technology holds potential to improve computing power.

Google, Facebook, they’re all starting to look at this technology. As integrated photonics progresses to be more cost effective than fiber optics, it will be used. Everything is headed this way.

Mike Krainak, Modem Project Lead, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center