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On December 24, 1968, Apollo 8 captured
the historic photo known as “Earthrise”.
However, it would take several days for the rest of the world to
see this awe-inspiring image.
Today, NASA has the capability to send hundreds of
“earthrise” like photos from the moon every second using lasers.
The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment
Explorer, or LADEE, will
investigate the Moon’s fragile atmosphere to enhance our knowledge of
Earth’s nearest neighbor.
LLCD, the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration, will hitch
a ride aboard LADEE to lunar orbit.
Using a small and lightweight telescope, LLCD will
transmit hundreds of millions of laser pulses each second to
one of three stations on the Earth….. Each of which was chosen
for it’s cloud-free skies.
To begin data transmission, the space and ground terminals
must first locate each other. This process begins
when the ground terminal scans LADEE’s path to
illuminate the spacecraft. LLCD senses the flash
from the ground and points its beam back to the source.
The ground terminal acquires the beam from
space and establishes a communication link.
With contact established and alignment locked,
hundreds of millions of data bits begin to flow between the two
terminals every second.
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Back on Earth, the ground terminal receives the laser pulses through an array
of telescopes that focus the weak signals onto
ultra-sensitive detectors. These detectors count the
individual signal photons from the terminal at the Moon,
and turn them into data bits at revolutionary download speeds.
In the future NASA could download finer
images, hundreds of 3-D HD video
streams, and could even one day enable “telepresence”
at the Moon and beyond for human explorers still on Earth.
Together LLCD and LADEE
will take the next step in expanding
NASA’s space communication capabilities while renewing
our sense of discovery about the Moon and the universe.
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