KEYWORDS: Laser communication terminals, Homodyne detection, Satellites, Receivers, Design, Data transmission, Space operations, Power consumption, Laser communications, Data communications
This paper details the progress in laser communication activities of Tesat-Spacecom. Besides the EDRS program (European Data Relay System) update of in-orbit Laser Communication Terminal (LCT) performance, with more than 81.859 data relay links executed (status Nov 2023), we report on the recent terminal projects, kicked off in 2022/2023. We present recent results of the first intradyne 1064nm coherent laser communication link from space to ground tested between GEO satellite Alphasat and the DLR/TESAT ground station (T-AOGS) at the observatory of Teide in Tenerife, Spain. Furthermore, we share results of intradyne lab measurements. Besides technology demonstrations, we present the new TESAT products in development (SCOT20 and SCOT135), that aim for the Cubesat market on the one hand and the high-performance systems for MEO / GEO satellites with data rates up to 100 Gbps, using commercial COTS technology, on the other hand. Finally, we report on the progress of the SCOT80 terminals delivered for the SDA Tranche 0 program.
KEYWORDS: Laser communication terminals, Quantum key distribution, Satellites, Space operations, Free space optics, Quantum data, Power consumption, Laser communications
This paper details the progress in the laser communication activities of Tesat-Spacecom. The EDRS program, the European Data Relay System, a private public partnership program between the European Space Agency ESA and Airbus Defence and Space ADS, is running flawlessly, until now (Oct 2022) 75.000 data relay links have been executed. We report on the performance of the systems in space and detail on other laser comms related activities of TESAT. Especially the delivery and launch of the first optimized LCTs (Laser Communication Terminals) for LEO data relay, the Smart LCTs. In addition, the delivery of Cubesat LCTs have to be mentioned, and the development, qualification and delivery of the ConLCTs for the SDA Tranche 0 program. Furthermore, TESATs involvement in Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and Precision Navigation and Timing (PNT) programs will be detailed.
The European Data Relay System is now in it´s fifth year of operation. Until now (March 2021) more than 50000 data relay laser links have been successfully executed. We report on in orbit performance of the data relay LCTs and other activities related to Lasercom at Tesat.
With the EDRS program, the European Data Relay System, a private public partnership program between the European Space Agency ESA and Airbus Defence and Space ADS, laser communication has entered the commercial service since November 2016 [1]. Currently four Earth Observation satellites named Sentinels equipped with TESAT Laser Communication Terminals from the Copernicus program of the European Union are served by 40 data relay links per day, already accumulating to more than 31000 links in total. We report on the performance of the systems in space and detail on other activities of Tesat.
KEYWORDS: Laser communications, Data communications, Relays, Telecommunications, Space operations, Diagnostics, Laser systems engineering, X band, Optical alignment, Receivers
With the start of the European Data Relay Service (EDRS) in June 2016, laser communication in space has entered a commercial application. The focus of the EDRS laser communication system is the low latency relay of earth observation (E/O) data from low earth orbiting space crafts. The anchor customers for EDRS in its initial phase are the Sentinel spacecrafts, constantly generating E/O data products in the framework of the European Union´s Copernicus Program. The vast majority of these data are in open access for the general public. Tesat is contracted for trending analysis and in orbit maintenance for the four Sentinel LCTs. The standard data delivery from the Sentinel 1 and Sentinel 2 spacecrafts is via X-band to polar stations and Italy and Spain, however using a LCT-GEO relay creates a “virtual ground station” and enables data transfer were no RF ground station is in the field of view of the space craft.
The paper reports on the deployment of the first commercial optical data relay system, the European Data Relay System (EDRS), the achieved performance so far, and the progress in the characterization of optical bi-directional space to ground links performed between the Laser Communication Terminal (LCT) on the Alphasat geostationary satellite and the transportable adaptive optics ground station (T-AOGS) currently co-located with the optical ground station from the European Space Agency (ESA) at Tenerife, Spain. Uplink results using homodyne binary phase shift keying at 1064 nm from the T-AOGS were examined. The performance of a packet erasure code according to the orange book CCSDS 131.5-O-1 optimized for the conditions of a laser uplink without adaptive optics correction of the phase front is analyzed.
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