A Feasibility Study for Laser Communications between Micro Satellites and GEO Satellites

In recent years, developing micro satellites (50 – 100 kg) has emerged as a new trend in satellite technology because of its advantages such as: short time and low cost for development, low cost for launching. However, the capability of communication between a micro satellite and a ground station is limited in terms of the time duration for communication and data latency. Because of the characteristics of the Low Earth Orbit (LEO), the micro satellite can only communicate with the ground station at most several times per day and the duration of each communication window is only up to 10 minutes. Moreover, there is a gap between each pass during which the data stored in the micro satellite cannot be transferred to the ground station. These problems can be overcome by using a Geostationary Orbit (GEO) satellite as a relay satellite. Several experiments of relay satellite communication have been done in the past. However, in the former experiments or analyses, radio frequency was used as the carrier and the size of the LEO satellite was relatively big. In this study, instead of using radio frequency, laser communications between a micro satellite which is much smaller than the previous ones and a Geostationary Orbit satellite is studied. In this communication model, the micro satellite in Low Earth Orbit (about 600 km altitude) will use laser to communicate with the Geostationary Orbit satellite which is at the altitude of 36,000 km. By using laser as the carrier, the communication speed is improved considerably comparing to the case of using radio frequency. Also, since the LEO satellite will be visible to the GEO satellite for at least 50% of its orbital period [1], the duration and frequency of the communication window are gained in comparison to the case of direct contact to the ground station. The purpose of this research is to study the feasibility of using laser communications between LEO micro satellites and GEO satellites. A simulation model is built to analyse the performance and feasibility of laser communications between LEO micro satellites and GEO satellites. Key Word (5 words): Laser communications, Micro Satellites, GEO Satellites, Feasibility, Laser Components A Feasibility Study for Laser Communications between Micro Satellites and GEO Satellites DO XUAN PHONG

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