Development of a pointing, acquisition, and tracking system for a CubeSat optical communication module
Miniaturized satellites such as CubeSats continue to improve their capabilities to enable missions that can produce significant amounts of data. For most CubeSat missions, data must be downlinked during short low-earth orbit ground station passes, a task currently performed using traditional radio s...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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SPIE
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107999 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5601-0978 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6166-8157 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1552-4432 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7791-5124 |
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| author | Nguyen, Tam T Riesing, Kathleen Michelle Kingsbury, Ryan W Cahoy, Kerri |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Nguyen, Tam T Riesing, Kathleen Michelle Kingsbury, Ryan W Cahoy, Kerri |
| author_sort | Nguyen, Tam T |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Miniaturized satellites such as CubeSats continue to improve their capabilities to enable missions that can produce significant amounts of data. For most CubeSat missions, data must be downlinked during short low-earth orbit ground station passes, a task currently performed using traditional radio systems. Free-space optical communications take advantage of the high gain of a narrow optical beam to achieve better link efficiency, allowing more valuable data to be downlinked over the mission lifetime. We present the Nanosatellite Optical Downlink Experiment (NODE) design, capable of providing a typical 3U (30 x 10 x 10 cm) CubeSat with a comparatively high data-rate downlink. The NODE optical communication module is designed to fit within a 5 x 10 x 10 cm volume, weigh less than 1 kg, and consume no more than 10Wof power during active communication periods. Our design incorporates a fine-steering mechanism and beacon-tracking system to achieve a 10 Mbps link rate. We describe the system-level requirements and designs for key components, including a transmitter, a beacon tracking camera, and a fast-steering mirror. We present simulation results of the uplink beacon tracking and fine steering of the downlink beam, including the effects of atmospheric fading and on-orbit environmental disturbances to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach. © (2015) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:42:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/107999 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:42:32Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | SPIE |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1079992022-10-01T22:07:29Z Development of a pointing, acquisition, and tracking system for a CubeSat optical communication module Nguyen, Tam T Riesing, Kathleen Michelle Kingsbury, Ryan W Cahoy, Kerri Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Nguyen, Tam T Riesing, Kathleen Michelle Kingsbury, Ryan W Cahoy, Kerri Miniaturized satellites such as CubeSats continue to improve their capabilities to enable missions that can produce significant amounts of data. For most CubeSat missions, data must be downlinked during short low-earth orbit ground station passes, a task currently performed using traditional radio systems. Free-space optical communications take advantage of the high gain of a narrow optical beam to achieve better link efficiency, allowing more valuable data to be downlinked over the mission lifetime. We present the Nanosatellite Optical Downlink Experiment (NODE) design, capable of providing a typical 3U (30 x 10 x 10 cm) CubeSat with a comparatively high data-rate downlink. The NODE optical communication module is designed to fit within a 5 x 10 x 10 cm volume, weigh less than 1 kg, and consume no more than 10Wof power during active communication periods. Our design incorporates a fine-steering mechanism and beacon-tracking system to achieve a 10 Mbps link rate. We describe the system-level requirements and designs for key components, including a transmitter, a beacon tracking camera, and a fast-steering mirror. We present simulation results of the uplink beacon tracking and fine steering of the downlink beam, including the effects of atmospheric fading and on-orbit environmental disturbances to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach. © (2015) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only. 2017-04-10T14:14:09Z 2017-04-10T14:14:09Z 2015-03 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/ConferencePaper 0277-786X 1996-756x http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107999 Tam Nguyen ; Kathleen Riesing ; Ryan Kingsbury and Kerri Cahoy " Development of a pointing, acquisition, and tracking system for a CubeSat optical communication module ", Proc. SPIE 9354, Free-Space Laser Communication and Atmospheric Propagation XXVII, 93540O (March 16, 2015) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5601-0978 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6166-8157 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1552-4432 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7791-5124 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.2080591 Proceedings of SPIE--the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf SPIE SPIE |
| spellingShingle | Nguyen, Tam T Riesing, Kathleen Michelle Kingsbury, Ryan W Cahoy, Kerri Development of a pointing, acquisition, and tracking system for a CubeSat optical communication module |
| title | Development of a pointing, acquisition, and tracking system for a CubeSat optical communication module |
| title_full | Development of a pointing, acquisition, and tracking system for a CubeSat optical communication module |
| title_fullStr | Development of a pointing, acquisition, and tracking system for a CubeSat optical communication module |
| title_full_unstemmed | Development of a pointing, acquisition, and tracking system for a CubeSat optical communication module |
| title_short | Development of a pointing, acquisition, and tracking system for a CubeSat optical communication module |
| title_sort | development of a pointing acquisition and tracking system for a cubesat optical communication module |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107999 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5601-0978 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6166-8157 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1552-4432 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7791-5124 |
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