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<title>Preliminary results of the STRV-2 satellite-to-ground lasercom experiment</title>

2000; SPIE; Volume: 3932; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1117/12.384315

1996-756X

Isaac I. Kim, Harel Hakakha, Brian Riley, Nicholas M. Wong, Mary Mitchell, Russell F. Howe, Carter Moursund, Wesley Brown, Prasanna Adhikari, Arunabh Lath, Eric J. Korevaar,

Optical Wireless Communication Technologies

A low earth orbit (LEO) satellite laser communication (lasercom) terminal built under funding by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization will be flown as part of the Space Technology Research Vehicle 2 (STRV-2) experiment module. The STRV-2 experiment module will be housed on the Air Force Tri-Service Experiments 5 spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch on April 15, 2000. The lasercom flight hardware weighs 31.5 pounds, with a volume less than a cubic foot, and is capable of communication at data rates up to 1 Gbps. The LEO satellite-to-ground lasercom experiment is designed for slant ranges up to 2000 km and elevation angles above 15 degrees over the horizon. This experiment will demonstrate a successful satellite lasercom link that will validate the capability and readiness of lasercom for inter- satellite crosslinks, and data downlinks from LEO earth sensing satellites. Two transportable ground terminals have been built and are presently being characterized. This paper describes the results from open loop pointing tests of an STRV-2 ground terminal to currently orbiting LEO satellites illuminated by the sun, such as the Hubble Space Telescope.