Laser Space Communication Concept for deep-space interplanetary missions using CubeSats

With NASA’s renewed interest in exploring the gas giants and their moons, cost reduction is on the forefront of concern. Concurrently, the surge in successful CubeSat launches to Near-Earth Orbit, has spawned interest in examining their use for deep space applications. In current CubeSat flight heritage, the communication systems use RF signals on lower bands, milli Watt class of power and compact omnidirectional Antenna system. But in order to close the communication link for distances greater than 10 AU, kW class of power is required to overcome the >250 dB space loss. Subsequently, the antenna diameter size goes into the order of a couple of meters. This results in the communication system to be bulky and spacious, increasing the cost of launch and operations into a billion-dollar tier mission. The objective of this paper is to target the reduction of this generic RF communication system mass and size, by replacing it with laser communication technology, which can fit into a 6U CubeSat constraint. Achieving this miniaturization can lower the cost of deep-space missions to the order of a million-dollar tier making it more accessible to small budget organizations such as university research labs.