An Experimental Spatial Acquisition and Tracking System for Optical Intersatellite Crosslinks
Abstract
Optical intersatellite communications crosslinks will operate with much higher antenna gains and hence more stringent pointing and tracking requirements than do present RF and microwave-based systems. The design and experimental demonstration of an optical heterodyne communications receiver that includes an integrated 2-axis spatial acquisition subsystem and heterodyne tracker are presented. Requirements for the acquisition and tracking system are derived from the Laser Intersatellite Transmission Experiment (LITE). The acquisition subsystem employs a parallel search algorithm using a direct detection, charge-coupled device (CCD) array. The heterodyne spatial tracker is based upon angle detection in the pupil plane. It uses a commutating, correlation demodulation scheme to reduce front-end-noise-induced biases relative to those from square law detection in the track channel alone. A robust handoff algorithm is presented for the transition between CCD-based acquisition and heterodyne spatial tracking. Results from a laboratory demonstration system are presented.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 03, 1991
- Accession Number
- ADA244636
Entities
People
- D. J. Bernays
- E. P. Colagiuri-cafarelli
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology