Design of a ground-based optical receiver for the lunar laser communications demonstration

Abstract

In this paper we present a design for a photoncounting optical receiver—based on superconducting NbN nanowire detector arrays—that will be employed in the ground terminal for the NASA Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration. The ground receiver is designed with four, 40 cm apertures, each coupled to a novel multi-mode polarization-maintaining fiber. The receiver is designed to receive a variable-rate pulse-position-modulated signal with a maximum data rate of 622 Mb/s.