The laser communications system for NASA’s Artemis II mission has arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for integration with the Orion spacecraft, which will take astronauts around the moon for the first time since the Apollo missions.

On November 16, 2022, NASA launched the Artemis I mission, an uncrewed test flight that took the Orion spacecraft further into space through human-focused assessments. The next mission, Artemis II, will test all Orion systems necessary for manned spaceflight and lay the groundwork for future missions to the lunar surface.

The Artemis II mission will also test new and improved technologies, including laser communication capabilities. Orion’s laser communication terminal is known as the Orion Artemis II Optical Communication System or O2O.

Laser communication systems such as O2O enable tasks with increased data rates; This means they can send and receive more information in a single transmission than the conventional radio wave systems used by most NASA missions today. More data means more discovery.

“At 260 megabits per second, O2O is capable of sending high-definition 4K video from the moon,” said Steve Horowitz, O2O project manager. “In addition to video and footage, O2O will transmit and receive procedures, footage, flight plans and will be the link between Orion and mission control on Earth.”

Once the data is collected, O2O will send the information via laser signals to one of two ground stations in Las Cruces, New Mexico, or Table Mountain, California – both chosen due to minimal cloud cover. The quality of images and videos sent from Orion via O2O will depend in part on cloud coverage of ground stations.

The O2O laser terminal is part of the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) optics application program that demonstrates laser communication in a variety of missions. O2O was developed by a team of engineers from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory (MIT-LL). This partnership has successfully led to several laser communications missions, including Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) in 2013, Laser Communication Relay Demonstration (LCRD) in 2021, and Terabyte Infrared Delivery (TBIRD) payload in 2022. SCaN demonstrates the benefits of laser communications for missions by demonstrating this technology in various space modes.

Prior to delivery to Kennedy, the O2O laser terminal underwent several levels of environmental testing to ensure the payload could operate in the harsh environment of space. Laser communication terminals like O2O will enable more data to reach Earth and support scientists’ efforts to conduct advanced research. The data collected by Artemis II will inform future NASA lunar missions and help the agency establish a long-term presence on the Moon and ultimately Mars. Source