Image source: MIT Lincoln Laboratory.ĭesigned and built by Lincoln Laboratory, the TBIRD communications payload was integrated onto a CubeSat manufactured by Terran Orbital as part of NASA's Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator program. The TBIRD communications payload, pictured above, is showcasing unprecedented data rates for space-to-ground laser communications. With small, low-cost space and ground terminals, TBIRD can enable scientists from around the world to fully take advantage of laser communications to downlink all the data they could ever dream of. Science instruments in space today routinely generate more data than can be returned to Earth over typical space-to-ground communications links. Lincoln Laboratory conceptualized the TBIRD mission in 2014 as a means of providing unprecedented capability to science missions at low cost. And these record-setting speeds were all made possible by a communications payload roughly the size of a tissue box. This data rate is more than 1,000 times higher than that of the radio-frequency links traditionally used for satellite communication and the highest ever achieved by a laser link from space to ground. Since then, TBIRD has delivered terabytes of data at record-breaking rates of up to 100 gigabits per second - 100 times faster than the fastest internet speeds in most cities - via an optical communication link to a ground-based receiver in California. In May 2022, the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) payload onboard a small satellite (CubeSat) was launched into orbit 300 miles above Earth's surface. ![]() ![]() The TeraByte InfraRed Delivery laser communications payload onboard a small satellite in low-Earth orbit will deliver a 200-gigabits-per-second downlink to a ground station in California.
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