12 November 1975

18I• NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE

. : WASHINGTON. D.C.

•

• THE NR0 STAFF

iff-SECREf 0

MEMORANDUM FOR MR. MYRON KRUEGER, NASA

SUBJECT: News Release on Laser Communications

Attached is a copy of page 36 of "Electronics" magazine dated

16 October 1975. • am quite concerned about the statements

attributed to NASA officials. As you recall, we made a point of

consolidating potential Air Force and National applications for

your consideration, and encouraged NASA in the pursuit of the

CO2 laser communication program.

Request you investigate these statements. If they indeed

derived from Air Force actions, I would appreciate any detail

you can provide.

IiRR P. WHEELER,

Colonel, USAF

Attachment

Excerpt

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of gas.

the sip among the de is is Ilia•• suit will have hole impact

MI the industry. '

Ce)operation upswing

Allot Yuan. at twain& sigmas'.

ckador anonlioni eau cuopt“ I. inaauorisconais tuna. Inform! Inc. and Neinicondoctor will each sootily lten•i w••••

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C•MOS randam•accesS memories Coming on Om hoofs of Nstionnl.'11ockwea and Wotan,

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tenet precedent Marshall Co. enables a supplier to Share the hen

develupnued rr•ia'• 'UPtUlaVe .s

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linter m the market

Satellites

NASA laser relay

bows to Air Force

An unusual conjunction of mi try

security. budget prkwities...atiii id.

sees in spacchorniv6Wf :hnislilty-ivirriterrtlai National Ai tonalities and Space Administrat on

out of the satellite aimmunicatnsis

relay business and eft the Air Fia

in charge.

ss.s's Goddard Space Eh •ht

('enter is phasing out its livc-n •.ar

program to develop i hp:methane

carbon monoxide taxer •commiiications system. Rest-an:hers th,•ye

have been tokl that the $15 30 n alkali needed to flight-test their spat •ens-yam data relay will nut be at adabk• in future fiscal wars.

More than that. (kiddard isfliculs

say the Air Force brought increasing pressule to sop the program I ecause the NASA charter requires ii

be undassitieJ. The systems aproads of the NASA and 'ism effo is

Is very similar," one NASA official

explains and "too much of it is

being published" in open scientific

MMus% sod pro 9. Nl •hov •nkwomalutee

FIGARO ENGINEERING INC.

. • qatellite,recimnaissanen in 11?7g. •

- NASA's 'problem

IMWt that development of earth ben- •.** - sins end small. high-data-rate coin- ' •

paters to he carried aboard ad- '

vanced earth-observation halellite• •

has inn kept pace with NASA's de- velopment or a en laser transceiver.

NASA UMW not in the near t mare make use of the lasers 3011-naillionhit-per-xecond data me.

Military. The Air Force 40511 pro. •

grant. led by Melkinnell Magas

Asitronautics'Co. East. is a I-gigabitper-second relay system aboard a

much bigger satellite that also has

room for a larger data processor and

a laser of neodymium and yttrium

aluminum garnet. 'the feasibility

model of the Nd-s At; laser %alms-

. tem. developed by cm -Sylvania

Inc., Mountain View. Calif.. (Testes at MI million pukes per at -

*hid. It is mode-kicked and achieves

itst gigabit data rate by frequency

milling, say its developers.

With its high data rate. the NJ-

'ACI laser in the 40511 program will

he capable of relaying digitised iv

signals in real time between satellites • for retransmission to earth.

Among other applications. the Air

Faro is anxious to monitor Soviet

'inieramtinental missile sites with

the system, to achieve a. superior

early wardietcapability. 0

. • • .. .•• • .

Instrumentation

literate Air Force is schrdWed lu I..Vits own L1.640_40,9 '

advanced devekTment program fin

IR sensor protects

transfer standard

Ilb comparing the heating effect of a

signal and a known dc voltage, an

ac-dc transfer standard measures

one-nns voltages with a high degree

or precision. Hut the circuits that

pomeds the device\ thimminiement

not only introduces errors. preventnip correlation Of the standard with

National llama of Standards bolt-

- age cells. it also has to he switched

in and out of the system for every

measurement. presenting use or the

ffkactronlcsiOctobar 16, 19Th