IGF::OT::IGF OPTICAL COMMUNICATION LINKS PROVIDE HIGHER DATA TRANSFER RATES WITH LOWER MASS, POWER, AND VOL…

Public award description

IGF::OT::IGF OPTICAL COMMUNICATION LINKS PROVIDE HIGHER DATA TRANSFER RATES WITH LOWER MASS, POWER, AND VOLUME THAN CONVENTIONAL RADIO-FREQUENCY LINKS. FOR DEEP SPACE APPLICATIONS AT LONG OPERATIONAL RANGES, HIGH PERFORMANCE STABILIZATION OF THE SPACE TERMINAL DATA LINK IS REQUIRED. TO MEET THIS NEED, CDI PROPOSES A NOVEL APPLICATION OF OUR FREE-FLOATING ISOLATION PLATFORM. BASED UPON A SHUTTLE-PROVEN TECHNOLOGY, THIS APPROACH YIELDS 6-DOF ISOLATION FROM THE DISTURBANCES OF THE HOST VEHICLE WHILE PROVIDING HIGHBANDWIDTH ACTIVE STABILIZATION TO ATTENUATE BOTH PAYLOAD DISTURBANCES AS WELL AS ANY RESIDUAL DISTURBANCES TRANSFERRED FROM THE BASE ACROSS THE POWER/DATA UMBILICAL. THE PROPOSED APPROACH IS DESIGNED TO ACHIEVE BETTER THAN 0.5MICRORADIAN-RMS STABILIZATION FOR ALL FREQUENCIES ABOVE 0.1HZ WHEN OPERATING IN A SPACE ENVIRONMENT. PHASE I DEVELOPS THE PROPOSED DESIGN CONCEPT, PERFORMS ARCHITECTURE TRADE STUDIES, AND PREDICTS PERFORMANCE TO ESTABLISH THE FEASIBILITY OF THE APPROACH. USING AN AVAILABLE FREE-FLOATING ISOLATION PLATFORM AND A 2-AXIS LOW-G TESTBED, THE DESIGN CONCEPT IS PROTOTYPED AND DEMONSTRATED ON HARDWARE IN A SIMULATED LOW-G ENVIRONMENT (TRL-5). PHASE II PROCEEDS WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PROTOTYPE SYSTEM THAT WILL BE SPACE QUALIFIED THROUGH COMPREHENSIVE GROUND TESTING (TRL-6). TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION FLIGHT TESTS WILL BE PROPOSED ON SRLVS AND/OR ISS PLATFORMS (E.G., WORF, OPALS UPGRADE), ACHIEVING A TRL-7 MATURITY BY THE END OF PHASE II.