PTD-3 (Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator) Spacecraft

Demonstrate a new laser communications system from MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Will demonstrate a new laser communications system from MIT Lincoln Laboratory capable of sending large amounts of data to ground stations from low-Earth orbit. This system could deliver up to 10 terabytes of data per day to a ground station.

For reference, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope generates about 10 terabytes of data per year. Tyvak Nanosatellite Systems will provide the CubeSat and orbital operations alongside NASA.

The TBIRD team is preparing for its upcoming launch, anticipated for June 2022. Recently, they delivered the payload to Tyvak, a company that specializes in small spacecraft development and integration. TBIRD will be a hosted payload on the Pathfinder Technology Demonstration (PTD) 3 mission. During the delivery to Tyvak, the entire payload was able to fit into the overhead bins of a commercial aircraft with space to spare.

The demonstration connected the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) laser communications payload aboard NASA’s Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator 3 Satellite (PTD-3) to the ground, transmitting 1.4 TB of test data in a single ground station pass lasting less than 5 minutes. TBIRD is a NASA Space Communications and Navigation payload developed by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

NASA’s Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator (PTD) mission series tests the operation of a variety of novel satellite technologies to provide significant enhancement to the performance of versatile spacecraft. Terran Orbital designed, built, integrated, and operated the spacecraft for the first PTD satellite, PTD-1, to demonstrate a propulsion system with a water-based propellant generated via water electrolysis. PTD-3 is also a Terran Orbital-developed satellite with added components to support the TBIRD payload. This optical communication technology demonstration aims to advance the state of the art for high-speed, direct-to-Earth transmission of data from low Earth-orbiting satellites to ground stations, targeting downlink at the unprecedented rate of 200 gigabits per second. Fast, error-free transfer of extremely high volumes of data may transform the operations and missions of scientific, commercial, and defense satellites.

Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator 3 (PTD-3) satellite enabled a successful 200 gigabits per second space-to-ground optical link. The NASA satellite hosts the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) payload funded by NASA Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) and developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Previously, Terran Orbital aided TBIRD’s data transmission of 1.4 terabytes of test data to a single ground station in a pass that lasted less than five minutes – a record breaker at the time in terms of both speed and data transmission quantity. The 200 gigabits per second space-to-ground optical link broke this record.

Key achievements:

• ~5-urad Cubesat closed-loop body pointing
• 100 & 200 Gbps downlinks from LEO
• Downlinked >1 Terabyte error-free in a variety of atmospheric conditions
• Validated use of terrestrial COTS components in space
• Performed end-to-end transfer from space buffer to ground buffer at 100 Gbps

• PLATFORM - Tyvak

• AMS (Agile MicroSatellite)
• BroncoSat-1
• Centauri-5
• CICERO-2 1
• CICERO-2 2
• CNCE V4
• CNCE V5
• Connecta T1.1
• CPOD A
• CPOD B
• Foresail-1
• Lemur-2 152
• Lemur-2 153
• Lemur-2 154
• Lemur-2 155
• Lemur-2 156
• Omnispace 2
• Planetum-1
• Platform-1
• PTD-3
• SPiN-1
• Urdaneta
• VariSat-1 C
• Guardian (Aistech)
• SBUDNIC
• FossaSat-2E 7
• FossaSat-2E 8
• FossaSat-2E 9
• FossaSat-2E 10
• FossaSat-2E 11
• FossaSat-2E 12
• FossaSat-2E 13
• Hatchling
• SelfieSat