Daily News Briefs

The Optical Society of America (OSA) is offering a print volume of the 2004 Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC), held in February in Los Angeles. "Trends in Optics and Photonics Series (TOPS) Post Conference Digest Volume 95, Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC)," is a collection of papers, including post-deadline papers, presented at the meeting. The volume will be published and available for shipment in June. For purchasing information, visit: www.osa.org/meetings/ofc/ . . . Stephen Mecherle, cofounder and chief scientist at fSONA Communications, a Vancouver-based developer of free-space optical networking products, recently assisted a NASA team preparing to launch a mission to Mars in 2009 that will attempt to demonstrate laser-based communications between the Earth and Mars. The Mars Laser Communications Demonstration Project is a joint effort of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory. By using free-space optics technology to communicate with the Mars telecom orbiter, the team will demonstrate a technology to improve NASA's ability to communicate throughout the solar system.