DSTG Laser Satellite Communications -Current Activities and Future Outlook

Mudge, Kerry A.; Clare, Bradley A.; Jager, Elisa; Devrelis, Vladimir; Bennet, Francis; Copeland, Michael; Herrald, Nicholas; Price, Ian; Lechner, Gottfried; Kodithuwakkuge, Jeewani; Magarelli, J.; Bandara, Dharmapriya; Peck, Christopher C.; Hollick, Monique; Alvino, Paul; Camp-Smith, Peter; Szumylo, Barbara; Raj, Agam; Grant, Kenneth J.

doi:10.1109/icsos53063.2022.9749716

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 10 publications

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“…In addition to the primary HF payload, BMM houses a secondary payload for further space to ground experimentation and novel scientific investigation. This payload includes an optical communications system for space to ground communications, an iridium transceiver for satellite to satellite communications and a deployable optics instrument known as the Manoeuvrable Antenna Terrestrial and self-Imaging System (MANTIS).The inclusion of an optical communications payload is motivated by a need for high data rates and broadening the available electromagnetic spectrum to be used, with an Optical Ground Station currently under development at DSTG [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deployable optics for the Buccaneer Main Mission (BMM)

Agenbag,

Alvino,

Bandara

et al. 2023

Aeronaut. j.

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Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) is currently preparing for the launch of the Buccaneer Main Mission (BMM) satellite, the successor to the Buccaneer Risk Mitigation Mission (BRMM). BMM hosts a high-frequency (HF) antenna and receiver to contribute to the calibration of the Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN). Verification of the successful deployment and stability of the large HF antenna is critical to the success of the mission. A bespoke deployable optics payload has been developed by DSTG to fulfil the dual purpose of direct verification of the deployed state of the HF antenna and capturing images of the Earth through a rotatable, dual-surfaced mirror and a variable-focus liquid lens. The payload advances research at DSTG in several fields of space engineering, including deployable mechanisms, precision actuation devices, radiation-tolerant electronics, advanced metal polishing and optical metrology. This paper discusses the payload design, material selection, trade-offs considered for the deployable optics payload and preliminary test results.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deployable optics for the Buccaneer Main Mission (BMM)

Agenbag,

Alvino,

Bandara

et al. 2023

Aeronaut. j.

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Availability, outage, and capacity of spatially correlated, Australasian free-space optical networks

Birch

Beattie

Bennet

et al. 2023

J. Opt. Commun. Netw.

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Network capacity and reliability for free space optical communication (FSOC) is strongly driven by ground station availability, which is dominated by local cloud cover causing an outage. Here, we combine remote sensing data and novel methods to provide a generalized framework for assessing and optimizing optical ground station networks. This work is guided by an example network of eight Australian and New Zealand optical communication ground stations that span approximately 60° in longitude and 20° in latitude. Utilizing time-dependent cloud cover data from five satellites, we present a detailed analysis that determines the network availability and diversity, which showed that the Australasian region is well-suited for an optical network with a 69% average site availability and low spatial cloud cover correlations. Employing methods from computational neuroscience, we provide a Monte Carlo method for sampling the joint probability distribution of site availabilities for an arbitrarily sized and point-wise correlated network of ground stations. Furthermore, we develop a general heuristic for site selection under availability and correlation optimizations and combine it with orbital propagation simulations to compare the data capacity between optimized networks and the example network. We show that the example network may be capable of providing tens of terabits per day to a low Earth orbit satellite and up to 99.97% reliability to geostationary satellites. We therefore used the Australasian region to demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge, novel, generalized tools for assessing and optimizing FSOC ground station networks, as well as the suitability of the region for hosting such a network.

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DSTG Laser Satellite Communications -Current Activities and Future Outlook

Cited by 2 publications

References 10 publications

Deployable optics for the Buccaneer Main Mission (BMM)

Deployable optics for the Buccaneer Main Mission (BMM)

Availability, outage, and capacity of spatially correlated, Australasian free-space optical networks

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