Abstract

The Communications Research Laboratory is planning a laser optical communication project to establish the basic technology of optical communications in space. The most important part of the experiment is maintaining the laser link between the satellite and the ground station by means of on-board laser communication equipment. The satellite will be launched in the summer of 1993. In this study of optical communication in space, several experiments are planned. The first is the acquisition and tracking of the satellite by using the point-ahead technique, which is the key to keeping the laser link. The second experiment is to measure the propagation characteristics of the laser beam through the atmosphere and to measure the beam pattern of the on-board laser diode. The third experiment is the high-accuracy attitude determination of the satellite by a controlled, polarized laser beam. The fourth and primary goal of the study is the dual-link optical communication experiment. The ground station includes a transmitting telescope with a fine pointing mechanism, a main telescope for receiving the signal from the satellite, and optics to modulate the Ar laser located in the Coude room under the telescope. In this paper, we will present the specifications of the ground equipment and some preliminary results of experiments that used the ground station.

© 1990 Optical Society of America