Aerospace America - Free-Space Laser Communications
September 1997
Article by Geoffrey Hyde, consultant, and Burton
I. Edelson, research professor and director of the Institute of Applied Space
Research, George Washington University.
Page 26-29
The use of the word "radio" in the title is somewhat of a poor choice and
could be considered to be confusing to the non-technical reader. It should not have
been used as a synonym for "communications". For the one thing this isn't
is a "radio communications link". It is, of course, an "optical
communications link".
JPL Optical Communications Demonstrator lasercom terminal is a flight-qualifiable
design, adaptable to meet the needs of a wide variety of space missions, including
intersatellite links, Earth to near-space links, and deep-space missions. Photograph
courtesy of JPL Optical Communications Group.
