Ground Based Uplink and Beacon Laser for Long Range Communication

For deep space optical communications (OC) at astronomical distances (AU) such as Mars and beyond, a multi-kW average power laser that can be coded to send data is needed. OC will revolutionize space-based science and exploration capabilities by supplying data rates up to 100 times faster than the currently used radio frequency (RF) based systems. In response to that, PSI proposed to develop a laser to use as a ground beacon and uplink laser transmitter. The innovation is to develop a simple tapered fiber design that can produce high energy pulses at low pulse repetition rate (PRF) and also low energy pulses at high PRF.nbsp; The versatility of the design fills the gap between these two types of lasers.nbsp; In Phase I the laser was operated at 1 MHz with 150 uJ of pulse energy and also operated at 30 MHz with 5 uJ of energy.nbsp; Former is suitable for long link distance to Mars and the latter is suitable for high data rate at 60 Mb/s. The proposed technology can also be applied to Er doped fiber to produce near 1.5 micron wavelength suitable for downlink laser.