The Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration: NASA’s First Step Toward Very High Data Rate Support of Science and Exploration Missions

Abstract

Future NASA missions for both Science and Exploration will have needs for much higher data rates than are presently available, even with NASA’s highly-capable Space- and Deep-Space Networks. As a first step towards this end, for one month in late 2013, NASA’s Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) successfully demonstrated for the first time high-rate duplex laser communications between a satellite in lunar orbit, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), and multiple ground stations on the Earth. It constituted the longest-range laser communication link ever built and demonstrated the highest communication data rates ever achieved to or from the Moon.

This report will summarize the main achievements of LLCD and put them in context of the near-term and long-term communications goals of NASA space missions.