COM DEV Ltd. d/b/a Honeywell Aerospace
BOLD – Broadband Optical Lunar Datalink — There is currently a bottleneck in getting scientific and imagery data back to Earth from the Moon due to constraints in RF link capacity, itself dictated by the limited Size, Weight And Power (SWAP) of lunar landers. Optical links could provide two to three orders of magnitude higher bandwidth at reduced SWAP but require resilient designs to cope with the Moon’s rugged environment.

The BOLD project objective is to advance the Technology Readiness Level of optical lasercom terminals by validating the technology in Moon simulated environment to be used on lander platforms on the Moon surface. The BOLD technology would provide nominally 50 Mb/s, with peaks at up to 100 Mb/s, of data capacity representing a thousand-fold increase in data link capacity. It will allow satellite communication technologies developed for low earth orbit to reach the lunar surface and enable high-speed Internet communication directly from the Moon surface back to Earth.