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Application Briefs

Communications

NEC Completes Design of Japan’s Optical Communication Demonstrator Satellite

NEC Corporation will develop a small technology demonstration satellite to conduct in-orbit verification of key technologies essential for realizing future optical communication satellite constellations, including optical communications, high-speed network routing design, and high-capacity millimeter-wave band communications. The design of the satellite-mounted equipment (payload) for this demonstration has now been completed. Read on to learn more.

INSIDER

Data Acquisition

Libera Space Instrument Continues Unbroken Record of Earth’s ‘Energy Budget’

Sometime next year, a new NASA instrument designed and built in Colorado will get an eagle-eye view of Earth. The instrument, known as Libera, will circle the...

INSIDER

Defense

AFWERX Tests Alternative Navigation System on Osprey MK III

A bright orange dart drifted in the air at approximately 1,000 feet. The cloudless, bright blue skies practically swallowed up the 7-foot, 50-pound unmanned aerial system as it...

INSIDER

Photonics/Optics

Space Lasers: Aiming Towards Next Leap in Global Communications

Space lasers are transforming the world. Not the far-off future of science fiction, but the universe of how data and communications flow today — everywhere from deep space...

Articles

Data Acquisition

Designing Multi-Channel Microwave Radio Systems Using Optical Interconnects

Imagine if it was possible to build multi-channel microwave radio systems leveraging optical rather than copper interconnects.

INSIDER

Wearables

Turning Thermal Energy into Electricity Could Help Soldiers

With the addition of sensors and enhanced communication tools, providing lightweight, portable power has become even more challenging. Army-funded research demonstrated a new...

Articles

Photonics/Optics

NASA Prepares for the Moon and Mars with Expanded Deep Space Network

NASA is adding a new antenna for communicating with the agency’s farthest-flung robotic spacecraft.

INSIDER

Communications

Changing the Face of UAV Communications

The increase in unmanned aircraft (UA) traffic is leading to an increase in communications disruptions because too many vehicles are trying to use the same limited number of frequencies.

Articles

Aerospace

Laser-Based System Could Expand Space-to-Ground Communication

A new research project announced recently as a collaboration between the Georgia Institute of Technology and satellite communications provider Xenesis could help open the bottleneck...

Briefs

Aerospace

Undersea Communications Between Submarines and Unmanned Undersea Vehicles in a Command and Control Denied Environment

Nuclear powered submarines can stay submerged for days at a time and only have to come to periscope depth (PD) for...

INSIDER

Weapons Systems

Army Develops First-of-Its Kind Phase-Coherent Fiber Laser Array System

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory's Computational and Information Science Directorate's Intelligent Optics Team, and partners, recently developed, engineered, demonstrated...

Tech Transfer Reports

Photonics/Optics

Laser System Offers Data Transmission Boost to Telecom and TV Broadcasters

A free-space optical laser communications technology that can compensate for atmospheric distortions in real time might soon break the bandwidth bottleneck for cellular...

Tech Transfer Reports

RF & Microwave Electronics

Laser Transmitter Keeps an Eye on Earth’s Climate

Fibertek (Herndon, VA) has leveraged three Missile Defense Agency (MDA)-funded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards to develop a suite of laser products, one of which now forms the basis for an important space weather platform.

Briefs

Photonics/Optics

Computational Photonics in Laser Communications Through Clouds

This work explored the concept of creating a partially coherent laser beam consisting of an array of spatially overlapping or separated Gaussian beams with possible individual...

Tech Transfer Reports

Photonics/Optics

Commercial Spinoffs from Military R&D Programs

A near-infrared (NIR) detector with single-photon sensitivity can be used to improve many applications, from better eye-safe lasers to speeding up tomorrow’s optical computers.

Briefs

Photonics/Optics

Developments in Adaptive Filtering and System Identification

Progress has been made on several fronts in a continuing program of research oriented toward the development of real-time algorithms, and computer and control systems that utilize the...

Tech Transfer Reports

Photonics/Optics

Mirror-Steering System Eliminates Vibration in Optical Devices

For optical systems used in communications and instrumentation applications in space and on the ground, eliminating vibration can be a difficult task. Left Hand Design Corp. (LHDC,...