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This will be the first of three phases in a $100 million Enterprise Space Terminal (EST) programme. The four companies chosen are: Blue Origin, CACI International, General Atomics, and Viasat.
Laser communication
The goal for the EST programme is to enable on-orbit crosslink compatibility among future U.S. space systems. This will be done via a “standardized enterprise waveform implemented in a long-range space optical communications terminal”.
These space terminals – specified as low size, weight, power, and cost – will be building blocks on satellites in a space mesh network – Space Data Network – with the waveform communicating from LEO to GEO.
“The EST prototypes will be a huge step forward for a future space mesh network across different orbital regimes ranging from low earth orbit to past the geosynchronous orbit regime,” said John Kirkemo, senior materiel leader of SSC’s Advanced Communications Acquisition Delta.
“These terminals will implement a common waveform so all satellites carrying these terminals can talk to each other. This is important as the network of satellites carrying EST compatible terminals will provide diverse communication paths for data that is critical to our national security and our way of life.”
Space Systems Command is the U.S. Space Force’s Field Command responsible for acquiring and delivering technologies to protect “strategic advantage in, to, and from space”.
Optical communications
Note that last month CACI International highlighted a distance record for optical communications.
NASA successfully sent data from its Psyche spacecraft to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which is a distance of 200 million kilometers. This was done as part of Nasa’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment.
“With this latest accomplishment, we have achieved another ‘first for mankind’ milestone with our technology,” said John Mengucci, CACI President and CEO.
“Our proven optical technology continues to attain historic milestones in the Optical Communications Terminal (OCT) realm. With more than 25 OCTs currently in low-earth orbit (LEO) for the U.S. government, we have demonstrated space-to-space and space-to-ground optical communications for proliferated LEO applications proving that a U.S.-based company can effectively design and manufacture this technology here at home.”
See also: Astrolight brings space laser communications to Lithuanian navy
