Universe Today
• Andy Tomaswick
Photonic "ski-jump" could shrink spacecraft LiDAR and laser comms to chip scale
A Nature paper from MIT, MITRE and Sandia describes a "photonic ski-jump" that pushes LiDAR and free-space laser communications from bulky mechanical mirrors to chip‑scale photonic structures. The approach promises orders‑of‑magnitude reductions in size, weight and power (SWaP) for spacecraft optical sensors and terminals.
