Photo: BridgeComm

The Space Development Agency (SDA) awarded Space Micro a 24-month development contract for one-to-many optical communications technology to support Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations. Space Micro announced the award on Feb. 23, and said that it is working with BridgeComm on the contract. 

Space Micro is a Voyager Space company and was acquired by Voyager in January. The company offers a 100-Gbps laser communications terminal which has been on orbit for over a year. 

The contract specifies the use of managed optical communication array (MOCA) technology, which Space Micro CEO David Czajkowski said will give LEO constellations capability to offer one-to-many or point-to-multipoint secure communications. 

BridgeComm has been working since 2-18 on point-to-point optical terminals by developing an one-to-many capability layer for optical wireless communications applications in the form of MOCA technology.

“RF [Radio frequency] has served us well, evolving to meet the increasing demands for higher performance within any mobile communications system, though they come with physical limitations for speed and capacity,” said Barry Matsumori, CEO of BridgeComm. “Optical wireless communications addresses the needs of end users, while complimenting RF with point-to-multipoint capability. We’ve seen great success in our demo and are excited for our customers to reap the benefits of MOCA.”