The development of a multi-functional optical subsystem enabling high-precision optical communication on small satellites has the potential to enable progress toward several NASA Strategic Goals, Grand Challenges, and Technology Roadmaps: Increasing the capabilities of small spacecraft in LEO through this proposed effort will lower the bar for budgets required to conduct space-based Earth Science, Solar Science, Astronomy, or commercial research, increasing the quantity and quality of scientific output as well as opening the door for commercial space exploration. * NASA Strategic Goal 2: Expand scientific understanding of the Earth and the universe in which we live * NASA Strategic Goal 3: Create the innovative new space technologies for our exploration, science, and economic future * Grand Challenges: Economical space access * Technology Roadmap: Science instruments, observatories and sensor systems The development of the proposed capability for small spacecraft is an enabling step toward allowing these spacecraft to perform the initial robotic exploration required to gather intelligence as part of an integrated architecture to support follow-on human exploration missions. * NASA Strategic Goal 1: Extend and sustain human activities across the solar system * Grand Challenges: NEO detection and mitigation, telepresence in space, new tools of discovery * Technology Roadmap: Communication and navigation systems, Human exploration destination systems As communication capability is a common infrastructure element to any meaningful remotely operated platform, there are innumerable potential applications for a low mass, low power optical communications system of the type enabled by the proposed work. A brief list of a few especially attractive applications include: High bandwidth applications for small satellites in LEO * Satellite crosslink communications * HD video from orbit * Low cost Earth observation constellations * Real-time disaster monitoring * Data-rich scientific payloads Low bandwidth applications for small spacecraft in deep-space * NEO detection and exploration * Solar observation * Astronomy observation Terrestrial high-bandwidth data communication * UAVs * Robots/Vehicles These commercial applications can be enabled through direct sales of the multi-functional optical subsystems, licensing of the design for inclusion in other systems, and sales of fully integrated small spacecraft.
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