The Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) is a mission concept that can dramatically improve state-of-the-art astronomical very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) imaging resolution by extending baseline distances to space. To support these scientific goals, a high data rate downlink is required from space to ground. Laser communications is a promising option for realizing these high data rate, long-distance space-to-ground downlinks with smaller space/ground apertures. Here, we present a scalable laser communications downlink design and current lasercom mission results.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2406.09572,
title = {High Data Rate Laser Communications for the Black Hole Explorer},
author = {Jade Wang and Bryan Bilyeu and Don Boroson and Dave Caplan and Kat Riesing and Bryan Robinson and Curt Schieler and Michael D. Johnson and Lindy Blackburn and Kari Haworth and Janice Houston and Sara Issaoun and Daniel Palumbo and Elliot Richards and Ranjani Srinivasan and Jonathan Weintroub and Dan Marrone},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.09572},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
Submitted to SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2024