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INSTRUCTIONS: Please enter your name, affiliation, and email (these fields are optional if you prefer to remain anonymous), your question or comment, topic area, and whether or not you would like for the organizers to follow-up with you after the workshop.

Questions and comments will be brought up during the discussion period (13:10-14:00 Central Time) as time permits. Any question not discussed during the workshop will be addressed post-workshop.

This worksheet will be made available to participants for at least a week following the workshop if participants want to include additional questions, comments, or thoughts, or just download a copy for their own record.

LaserCom Workshop 2024: https://balloontech.umn.edu/2024-lasercom-workshop
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NAME (OPTIONAL)AFFILIATION (OPTIONAL)EMAIL (OPTIONAL)QUESTION (OR) COMMENTTOPIC AREAREQUEST FOLLOW-UPANSWERED
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Jessica GaskinMSFCjessica.gaskin@nasa.govDoes NASA have any plans on preparing an RFI on future comm needs?NASA comm roadmap
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Scott HeatwoleWFFscott.e.heatwole@nasa.govWhat is the ROM power and cost for the PeXT terminal?NASA comm roadmapYES
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Eliot YoungSwRIHow do we get details on the PExT termianl? Q2: Could a PExT terminal fly as a rideshare on the 2025 Antarctica engineering flight?NASA comm roadmap
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Pietro BernasconiJHU/APLOrbits for PeXT? Polar available?NASA comm roadmapNOYES
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Pascal Saint-HilaireTimelines for optical com?Lasercom technology roadmap
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Pietro Bernasconineed to consider system for integration and operations - still work to be done before optical com becomes a realityNOYES
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Pietro BernasconiJHU/APLpietro.bernasconi@jhuapl.eduWe are flying Starlink on GUSTO and over Antarctica we have on average between 100 and 200 Kbps downlink, and nearly constant uplink capability. We are happy that we were able to implement Starlink at the last moment. Without it controlling GUSTO and sending data down would have been a big challenge.Current non-lasercom capability
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Bryan RobinsonMITLLbrobinson@ll.mit.eduWhy are the Starlink rates reported by SuperBIT so much higher than GUSTO? A: Due to polar links for GUSTO.Current non-lasercom capabilityNOYES
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Brent MochizukiUCB/SSLAre slides available? My connection isn't great and it would be nice to be able to page back on my own
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Scott HeatwoleNASA/WFFscott.e.heatwole@nasa.govHow does free space optical comm handle ice clouds? Thinking notilucent clouds at the poles at 85km and ice clouds at lower altitudesLasercom capability
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StratocatOn long-duration flights at middle latitudes, could problems arise with countries that do not allow the overflight of a balloon carrying a laser pontentially pointing at the ground?
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Eliot YoungIs the beam size equal to the diffraction limit (10 cm aperture, 1.5 μm wavelength), or about 3 arcsec?
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Eliot YoungCould you discuss what is necessary for a deployable ground terminal? What size aperture? Could you imagine multiple small apertures over a spatial area?
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Pietro BernasconiJHU/APLpietro.bernasconi@jhuapl.eduI think taht the ballooning community whould come up with a set of requirements for this lasercom capabiliyt. Basic things like mass, power, pointing, data rate. I think that in general something of the size and mass of the TDRSS dome should be a good startTechnology development
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Markus AllgaierUNDmarkus.allgaier@und.eduWe will have an operational optical comms terminal and testbed at the University of North Dakota by the end of 2025. If you're interested in developing ground stations or baloon receivers, or need help with qualifying and testing optical terminals, please reach out! I'm especially excited about extreme SWAP and other requirements that commercial systems might not meet. So please reach out if you want to bounce ideas back and forth. Especially now that we're putting contracts for hardware in place, it's a good time to voice your ideas and requirements.Lasercom technolgy infrastructureYES
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Javier RomualdezStarSpecjavier@starspectech.comIt seems there may be a development gap in the CSBF standard offering being able to provide the kind of pointing information required for optical comms (again depending on the requirements of the terminal). If a commercial off the shelf offering were capable of filling that gap, would that enable further developing this capability?Technology development YES
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