Chascii is proposing the development of an inter-spacecraft omnidirectional optical communicator (ISOC) that will provide fast connectivity and navigation information to small spacecraft forming a swarm or a constellation in cislunar space. The ISOC proposed for cislunar applications operates at 1550nm, employs a dodecahedron body holding 6 optical telescopes and 20 external arrays of detectors for angle-of-arrival determination. The proposed ISOC will provide full sky (4π steradian) coverage and gigabit connectivity among smallsats forming a swarm or constellation. It will also provide continuous positional information among these spacecraft including bearing, elevation, and range. We also expect the ISOC to provide fast low-latency connectivity to assets on the surface of the moon such as landers, rovers, instruments, and astronauts. During Phase I we propose to conduct a thorough study of the cislunar ISOC including key factors that affect angular accuracy and available ranging techniques suitable for ISOC accurate range calculation. We will also perform a conceptual design of the ISOC that will lead to successful prototype construction and testing during Phase II. We believe the ISOC, once fully developed, will provide commercial, high data rate connectivity to future scientific, military, and commercial missions around cislunar space and beyond.
The proposed ISOC will allow ultrafast wireless data transfer for many space applications. Among the NASA applications include short range inter satellite communications such as formation flying and constellations of spacecraft. A key application of the ISOC is to enable constellations of spacecraft in cislunar space such as the proposed Lunanet. It should also allow connectivity around planetary bodies and on the surface of those bodies as well. It should also enable new larger instruments via synthetic aperture formation as well.
Commercial development of space is imminent. A key opportunity is to use space to provide internet services across the globe. There are 7.9B people on Earth from which 3.7B (47%) have no internet access. We believe that, once fully developed, the ISOC should be able to provide a viable solution to the global connectivity market.