Marcus Birch's scholarship within CSIRO

CSIRO manages deep space communications with many space probes that explore the solar system by radio communications. NASA is considering the funding of amajor upgrade to CSIRO's Deep Space Communications Complex (CDSCC) to use laser pulses for communcations with future spacecraft. This project will use opticalinstruments to evaluate the atmospheric disturbances at CDSCC to determine how the atmosphere will affect optical communications there. The project will be acollaboration with Prof. Andrew Lambert of UNSW, a leading expert on atmospheric measurements in astronomy, and Dr. Francis Bennet of ANU, a leader in optical communications and quantum encryption.