Grants and Contributions

There is currently a bottleneck in getting scientific and imagery data back to Earth from the Moon due to constraints in RF link capacity, itself dictated by the limited Size, Weight And Power (SWAP) of lunar landers. Optical links could provide two to three orders of magnitude higher bandwidth at reduced SWAP but require resilient designs to cope with the Moon’s rugged environment.

The BOLD project objective is to advance the Technology Readiness Level of optical lasercom terminals by validating the technology in Moon simulated environment to be used on lander platforms on the Moon surface. The BOLD technology would provide nominally 50 Mb/s, with peaks at up to 100 Mb/s, of data capacity representing a thousand-fold increase in data link capacity. It will allow satellite communication technologies developed for low earth orbit to reach the lunar surface and enable high-speed Internet communication directly from the Moon surface back to Earth.

(20STDPK40) Optical Inter Satellite Links (OISL) transceiver is an optical transmitter and receiver, converting the incoming/outgoing optical signals to extract/transmit data to/from other satellites and earth.

To date Radio Frequency has been used as primary transmission media in space, however, moving to optical data transfer benefits in speed, security, higher data rates, lower power consumption and reduction of satellite physical footprint.

The project is to validate achievement of TRL 6 of an OISL transceiver, based on a selected Commercial Off The Shelf transceiver (TRL 4), suitable for application on a LEO-type satellite, in conjunction with the Optical Head Unit to enable data transmission.

This transceiver will be demonstrated in a laboratory environment.

Canada stands to benefit from all the current effort to develop OISL products.

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations currently under development will require the use of high-speed optical inter-satellite links to move vast amounts of data from satellite to satellite. To achieve this, the satellite optical terminals will need precision acquisition and tracking capabilities to establish and maintain tightly focused optical communications links.

The project will leverage past work done by Honeywell on the James Webb Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor and other space projects to perform advanced development of an optical pointing and tracking system that will perform better, can be manufactured faster, and costs less than existing designs. The project will help Canada to secure a critical new role in space communications and maintain Canada's dominant position in space-based communications hardware.

Satellite optical communications terminals currently in use as well as those that are in advanced development, use large steering mechanisms to direct lasers at their intended targets.

This project will develop and test a low-cost, light-weight, electronic pointing system to replace existing steering mechanisms. The new system will use a high-efficiency optical phased array to transmit signals more reliably and will be small enough to fit on a single chip. This project will also test the system's ability to work with other optical components, which will lower costs and accelerate the adoption of satellite based optical communications for a range of applications.

Low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite constellations currently under development will require the use of high-speed optical inter-satellite links to move vast amounts of data within the satellite mesh. To achieve this, satellite optical terminals will need to have precision acquisition and tracking capability to establish and maintain the tightly focused optical communications links.

COM DEV will develop the Optical Pointing and Tracking Relay Assembly for Communication (OPTRAC) system to provide the necessary fine pointing, tracking, point-ahead and optical fibre coupling to receive and transmit communication signals between optical terminals.

Mass and size have always been design drivers for space applications. Launch costs and a continuous drive towards increased on-orbit capability mean that a significant premium is placed on any reduction in mass and/or volume of a product.

COM DEV will develop a new output network targeting a 30% reduction in mass and size. The output network is a collection of hardware utilized for recombining high-power amplified signals into a uniform beam for broadcast back to Earth. This proposed miniaturized output network will introduce novel designs, new materials and processes, and streamlined manufacturability for schedule and cost.

This project entitled «Flexible Channel Routers and Input Assemblies for High Throughput Satellite Communications» consists of developing the required electronics tailored to meet the demand for an increasingly faster transfer of information via telecommunications satellites. The newest generation of these satellites, called High Throughput Satellites (HTS), offer internet connectivity anywhere in the world at speeds much greater than traditional satellites.

This project entitled «Novel Ka Wideband Filters and Ancillaries» consists of developing advanced electronics onboard telecommunications satellites in order to meet the increasing demand for larger and faster satellite data throughput. This technology would improve the efficiency at which signal filters on satellites can process and separate multiple signals sent on different frequency channels. It would prevent these signals from interfering with each other while allowing their proper dispatch to the designated end users.

This project entitled «Fifth Generation Switch Actuator» consists of reducing the mass and size of a key mechanical component used aboard telecommunications satellites. This component is called an actuator and is the mechanism responsible for the reliable operation of signal switches. These switches are essential to the proper routing of signals coming into a satellite from a ground user and sent back to another ground user, or users. Since satellites host many of these activator-controlled switches, their mass and size are a key factor in determining which ones will be used in their construction.

This project entitled «Next Generation HTS Flexible Architecture Products» aims to develop state-of-the-art electronics components for telecommunications satellites to provide high data and information traffic throughput. More specifically, this development will yield technical advancements for a component called Output Multiplexer which is essentially responsible for combining separate signals being linked up to a satellite from different ground users and which need to be combined (multiplexed) on-board the satellite before being aggregately transferred to specific ground users.