TY - GEN
T1 - A modular, agile, scalable optical terminal architecture for space communications
AU - Shih, Tina
AU - Devoe, Cathy
AU - Guldner, Owen
AU - Hubbard, William
AU - Khatri, Farzana I.
AU - Constantine, Steven
AU - Burnside, Jamie W.
AU - Torres, James
AU - Robinson, Bryan S.
N1 - Funding Information:
This material is based upon work supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Air Force Contract No. FA8721-05-C-0002 and/or FA8702-15-D-0001. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 IEEE.
PY - 2018/5/9
Y1 - 2018/5/9
N2 - As we look towards the future of optical communications, there are ever more missions requiring low size, weight, and power (SWaP), low cost, and very agile space terminals. Increased numbers of end-users look to minimize the costs associated with non-recurring engineering, and spacecraft operators that prefer not to deviate from their primary mission during communications operations. We present an optical terminal architecture which is specifically designed to have ready access to a greater-than-hemispherical field of regard (±175° in azimuth and ±120° in elevation, at up to 10°/sec slew rate), is modular to facilitate future technology upgrades and technology transfer to industry, can be scaled for use in LEO, GEO and deep-space applications, and leverages experience from a variety of successful space terminals that precede this design. In the past two years, this agile, modular, and scalable optical terminal architecture concept has been realized as a 10-cm aperture space terminal design. The terminal design was divided into subassemblies and further developed by industry partners, yielding an Engineering Development Unit (EDU) that has been assembled and tested. The optical and pointing performance of the EDU have been measured and are reported. Flight units of this 10-cm aperture space terminal are being developed for two upcoming missions, one for a LEO-based application and another for a lunar-based application, both presently scheduled for launch in 2021.
AB - As we look towards the future of optical communications, there are ever more missions requiring low size, weight, and power (SWaP), low cost, and very agile space terminals. Increased numbers of end-users look to minimize the costs associated with non-recurring engineering, and spacecraft operators that prefer not to deviate from their primary mission during communications operations. We present an optical terminal architecture which is specifically designed to have ready access to a greater-than-hemispherical field of regard (±175° in azimuth and ±120° in elevation, at up to 10°/sec slew rate), is modular to facilitate future technology upgrades and technology transfer to industry, can be scaled for use in LEO, GEO and deep-space applications, and leverages experience from a variety of successful space terminals that precede this design. In the past two years, this agile, modular, and scalable optical terminal architecture concept has been realized as a 10-cm aperture space terminal design. The terminal design was divided into subassemblies and further developed by industry partners, yielding an Engineering Development Unit (EDU) that has been assembled and tested. The optical and pointing performance of the EDU have been measured and are reported. Flight units of this 10-cm aperture space terminal are being developed for two upcoming missions, one for a LEO-based application and another for a lunar-based application, both presently scheduled for launch in 2021.
KW - Free-space optical communications
KW - LEMNOS
KW - Laser communications
KW - Lasercom
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85048000775&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85048000775&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ICSOS.2017.8357236
DO - 10.1109/ICSOS.2017.8357236
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85048000775
T3 - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Space Optical Systems and Applications, ICSOS 2017
SP - 203
EP - 207
BT - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Space Optical Systems and Applications, ICSOS 2017
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Space Optical Systems and Applications, ICSOS 2017
Y2 - 14 November 2017 through 16 November 2017
ER -