Preliminary results of the OCTL to OICETS optical link experiment (OTOOLE)

JPL in collaboration with JAXA and NICT demonstrated a 50Mb/s downlink and 2Mb/s uplink bi-directional link with the LEO OICETS satellite. The experiments were conducted in May and June over a variety of atmospheric conditions. Bit error rates of 10-1 to less than 10-6 were measured on the downlink. This paper describes the preparations, precursor experiments, and operations for the link. It also presents the analyzed downlink data results.

[1]  Yozo Shoji,et al.  Expanded laser communications demonstrations with OICETS and ground stations , 2010, LASE.

[2]  Keith E. Wilson Laser uplink safety for future NASA high-bandwidth spacecraft communications , 2009 .

[3]  Werner Klaus,et al.  Laser beam propagation in ground-to-OICETS laser communication experiments , 2007, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

[4]  Gail P. Anderson,et al.  MODTRAN4 radiative transfer modeling for atmospheric correction , 1999, Optics & Photonics.

[5]  Keith E. Wilson,et al.  Data products for the OCTL to OICETS optical link experiment , 2010, LASE.

[6]  Gotthard Oppenhauser,et al.  In-orbit test result of an operational optical intersatellite link between ARTEMIS and SPOT4, SILEX , 2002, SPIE LASE.

[7]  James R. Lesh,et al.  Overview of the Ground-to-Orbit Lasercom Demonstration (GOLD) , 1997, Photonics West.

[8]  Keith E. Wilson,et al.  GOPEX: a laser uplink to the Galileo spacecraft on its way to Jupiter , 1993, Photonics West - Lasers and Applications in Science and Engineering.

[9]  Toshihiko Yamawaki,et al.  Completion of Optical Inter-Orbit Communications Engineering Test Satellite (OICETS) , 2006 .

[10]  Keith E. Wilson,et al.  Development of laser beam transmission strategies for future ground-to-space optical communications , 2007, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

[11]  S. Shambayati,et al.  Deep-space optical communications , 2011, 2011 International Conference on Space Optical Systems and Applications (ICSOS).