The U.S. Department of Defense’s Space Test Program Satellite-6 (STPSat-6), part of the Space Test Program 3 (STP-3) mission, will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida no earlier than December 5, 2021. STP is managed by the United States Space Force’s Space Systems Command.

It takes two copper wires, like the ones in your telephone cord, to carry just one phone conversation. Fiber optic cable carries much more information than copper cable. Two strands of optical glass fiber can transmit the equivalent of 24,000 telephone calls all at the same time.

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Cross section of the fiber optic cable that connects Medea to ROV Jason. The outer yellow and black plastic layers protect it from abrasion. The white material called “Spectra” provides strength but is very light. The three smaller colored wires in the middle contain the glass strands.A piece of fiber optic cable unraveled to show the three colored wires containing the glass fibers. The fuzzy white material is the Spectra.One of the colored wires has been spread out to show the glass fiber. The red arrow points to the junction between the thin glass strand and its outer plastic coating. This protects it from abrasion. The several copper wires surrounding the glass strand are the electrical conductors that carry the 1800 volts used to power ROV Jason. The yellow plastic jacket around the bundle is insulation.How do you connect two fiber optic cables together? The tip of each glass strand is inserted through a special connector, glued and polished. By placing the polished tips together light can pass from one glass strand to the other. The copper wires on each cable are crimped to make a mechanical connection.DSOG team member Craig Elder holds the yellow fiber optic tether that connects ROV Jason to Medea.

Banner image: Illustration of STPSat-6 with the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) payload communicating data over infrared links. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Jason has two fiber optic cables. The main cable runs from the ship to Jason and has steel armor on its outside. This gives it over 20 tons of strength. The other cable is the yellow tether that runs from Medea to Jason. Instead of steel, it is reinforced with a material called Spectra. This material is strong yet light in weight so Jason can move easily without dragging a heavy cable through the water.

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A piece of fiber optic cable unraveled to show the three colored wires containing the glass fibers. The fuzzy white material is the Spectra.

Underwater fiber optic cables are used to connect instruments on the seafloor to shore based labs. Scientists can now send commands to their instruments and collect data continuously from their office computer.

LCRD is led by Goddard and in partnership with JPL and the MIT Lincoln Laboratory. LCRD is funded through NASA’s Technology Demonstration Missions program, part of the Space Technology Mission Directorate, and the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

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Katherine Schauer is a writer for the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program office and covers emerging technologies, commercialization efforts, exploration activities, and more.

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NASA and commercial aerospace companies are applying similar technologies to space communications, bringing optical speeds to the final frontier. Free-space optical communications leverages recent advancements in telecommunications to allow spacecraft to send high-resolution images and videos over laser links.

Fiber optic cable is made of many thin strands of coated glass fibers. Each measures about eight microns - that’s smaller than a strand of human hair. Digitized information is “coded,” or placed on to light pulses for transmission. It travels along the glass fiber at the speed of light - 186,000 miles per second. When it reaches its destination, a decoder converts the light information into a picture, audio sound or written material in a form we can understand.

Handheld electronic video magnifiers allow you to access information wherever you are; around the home, at the office, while shopping, in restaurants etc.

“The Earth’s atmosphere distorts laser beams due to turbulence. Understanding these challenges are critical to enabling operational optical communications relay capability,” said Jason Mitchell, Director of the Advanced Communications and Navigation Technology division in the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program at NASA Headquarters.

On board RV Knorr, we use fiber optic cable to connect the different laboratories to the shipboard computer network. But we also use fiber optic cable to connect the ship to ROV Jason while it is underwater. The fiber optic cable we use has three glass strands to send commands to Jason as well as to receive data and images sent from the seafloor back to the ship. Copper wires that send power to Jason surround the three glass strands.

Our televisions and computer screens display news, movies, and shows in high-definition, allowing viewers a clear and vibrant experience. Fiber optic connections send laser light densely packed with data through cables to bring these experiences to users.

Ever wonder how it works? Fiber optic technology was developed in the early 1970’s and is rapidly replacing traditional copper cable for transmitting information over hundreds to thousands of miles. Rather than send data in the form of electrons, fiber optic technology uses photons, or light.

While LCRD’s experimenter program will allow NASA and industry to test and refine techniques, both the agency and the commercial sector have been demonstrating and using laser communications for the past few decades.

NASA is committed to fostering the growing space economy and the commercial aerospace community to encourage technological innovation/ bring down costs for all users. This dedication extends to new technologies and capabilities like laser communications systems.

As you read this Hot Topic, your computer is probably connected to a phone line or an Internet service provider that uses fiber optic cable to transmit the information to you.

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Generally, commercial efforts have been focused on developing space-to-space laser systems for use in low-Earth orbit. Companies are investing in satellite constellations which leverage laser communications to provide global broadband coverage. Proposed constellations have several hundred to thousands of satellites, creating an extensive in-space laser communications network. Commercial constellations still largely rely on radio frequency links to send data back to Earth. Whereas LCRD uses lasers for both in-space and direct-to-Earth communications.

NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) will send data to and from ground stations and, eventually, in-space user missions over laser links.

While industry is focused on in-space optical communications to support terrestrial users, NASA is demonstrating direct-to-Earth capability from geosynchronous orbit to increase communications capabilities for future missions. With laser communications onboard, missions will be able to communicate more data in a single transmission than they could with traditional radio frequency communications.

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NASA explores the unknown in air and space, innovates for the benefit of humanity, and inspires the world through discovery.

Fiber optic cables now cross the world’s oceans to connect many countries together. Whether you are in Mauritius, Australia or the United States, you are probably viewing Dive and Discover at the end of tiny, nearly continuous strands of glass that reach all the way from Woods Hole, Massachusetts to you. To make sure you receive all the information, the fibers are made of ultra-pure glass so that the light pulses are not distorted or weakened.

Additionally, NASA’s Low-Cost Optical Terminal (LCOT) will use commercial off-the-shelf or slightly modified hardware to reduce expense and speed implementation. NASA depends on a robust domestic space industry and hopes these investments will allow the U.S. government to purchase future laser communications hardware and services. This will decrease costs while enabling more missions to use laser communications.

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Wedge prisms are used to deflect a light beam by a small angle. They can be used to isolate different physical environments and deflect the back reflection to a ...

Cross section of the fiber optic cable that connects Medea to ROV Jason. The outer yellow and black plastic layers protect it from abrasion. The white material called “Spectra” provides strength but is very light. The three smaller colored wires in the middle contain the glass strands.

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Aberration can be defined as a departure of the performance of an optical system from the predictions of paraxial optics. ... In an imaging system, it occurs when ...

The axis along which the electric field oscillates is referred to as the polarisation axis. When a light wave possesses many different polarisation axes, it is ...

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How do you connect two fiber optic cables together? The tip of each glass strand is inserted through a special connector, glued and polished. By placing the polished tips together light can pass from one glass strand to the other. The copper wires on each cable are crimped to make a mechanical connection.

One of the colored wires has been spread out to show the glass fiber. The red arrow points to the junction between the thin glass strand and its outer plastic coating. This protects it from abrasion. The several copper wires surrounding the glass strand are the electrical conductors that carry the 1800 volts used to power ROV Jason. The yellow plastic jacket around the bundle is insulation.

Download scientific diagram | The geometry of two marginal rays from publication: Measuring Repeatability of the Focus-variable Lenses | In the field of ...

There are two types of fiber optic cable that allow the light to travel along it in different ways. Today we use “single mode” fiber that allows the light to follow only one optical path. This makes it possible to transmit much more information over much longer distances.

With these two different yet complementary goals, NASA also is partnering with industry to further refine laser communications hardware. In fact, LCRD includes commercially designed and built components alongside custom, NASA-developed systems. The optical module, which sends lasers to and from the payload, was designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory and built at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. However, multiple parts of LCRD came from companies like L3Harris Technologies, SEAKR Engineering, Moog Inc., and the Sierra Nevada Corporation. These include the telescope system, controller electronics system, and space switching unit – all critical to LCRD operations.

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LCRD’s mission will be spent proving out the technology by testing laser communications capabilities with experiments from NASA, other government agencies, academia, and – in particular – the commercial aerospace community. Industry-developed experiments will allow companies to test their own technologies, software, and capabilities. NASA is providing these opportunities to grow the body of knowledge surrounding laser communications and promote its operational use.

“Free-space” refers to the absence of the insulated, fiber optic cables that enable the terrestrial internet. Free-space laser communications flow freely through the vacuum of space, however atmosphere poses unique challenges to communications engineers.