小型衛星間光通信捕捉追尾装置の開発

抄録

In inter-satellite links with many Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, each satellite will communicate with one or more satellites. In such cases, a satellite needs multiple, small, and light optical antennas. A communication link between satellites is not sustained at high latitudes because antenna drive angles are large due to high relative angular rates. To reduce such link lost time, a wide drive range with high speed is required for optical antennas. To meet these requirements, we propose a coude path type optical antenna. Furthermore, optical fiber application will be required to achieve optical communication of the next generation of gigabit class. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the technology which introduces the laser received with the optical antenna to an optical fiber. The optical antenna’s experimental model is equipped with optical fiber. This paper describes the mechanism, control system and experimental results of the optical antenna we have developed. The principle and performance of the coude path type optical antenna with optical fiber was verified by using an experimental model of the optical antenna.