The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 12, 2018
Filed:
Jan. 08, 2016
Don M. Boroson, Needham, MA (US);
Bryan S. Robinson, Arlington, MA (US);
Bryan M. Reid, Chelmsford, MA (US);
Jamie W. Burnside, Lexington, MA (US);
Farzana I. Khatri, Lexington, MA (US);
Steven Constantine, Westford, MA (US);
Don M. Boroson, Needham, MA (US);
Bryan S. Robinson, Arlington, MA (US);
Bryan M. Reid, Chelmsford, MA (US);
Jamie W. Burnside, Lexington, MA (US);
Farzana I. Khatri, Lexington, MA (US);
Steven Constantine, Westford, MA (US);
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
A satellite in low-Earth orbit (LEO) or medium-Earth orbit (MEO) with a modern image sensor and/or other remote sensing device can collect data at rates of 10 Mbps or higher. At these collection rates, the satellite can accumulate more data between its passes over a given ground station than it can transmit to the ground station in a single pass using radio-frequency (RF) communications. Put differently, the sensors fill the spacecraft's memory faster than the spacecraft can empty it. Fortunately, free-space optical communications signals can carry far more data than RF communications signals. In particular, a spacecraft can transmit over 1 Tb of data in a single pass using burst wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) optical signals. Each burst may last seconds to minutes, and can include tens to hundreds of WDM channels, each of which is modulated at 10 Gbps or more.