Sota optical downlinks to DLR’s optical ground stations

Fuchs, Christian; Kolev, Dimitar; Moll, Francesc; Shrestha, Amita; Brechtelsbauer, Martin; Rein, Fabian; Schmidt, Christopher C.; Akioka, Maki; Munemasa, Yasushi; Takenaka, Hideki; Toyoshima, Morio

doi:10.1117/12.2296107

Cited by 13 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…CNES performed five successful links detecting Tx1 and Tx4 signals from SOTA during June, July and October 2015 using the 1.54-m MeO OGS in Caussol (France) [267]. DLR hit SOTA with the uplink beacon in July 2015 and they performed one successful link in May 2016 receiving the Tx4 signal from SOTA using a 40-cm and 60-cm OGS in Oberpfaffenhofen (Germany) [28]. Lastly, CSA used a 40-cm OGS in Montreal (Canada) to perform a partially-successful link in August 2016, hitting SOTA with the uplink beacon in one pass.…”

Section: Fig 3: Footprint Of the Sota Lasers On The Ogs Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

LEO-to-ground optical communications using SOTA (Small Optical TrAnsponder) – Payload verification results and experiments on space quantum communications

et al. 2017

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Free-space optical communications have held the promise of revolutionizing space communications for a long time. The benefits of increasing the bitrate while reducing the volume, mass and energy of the space terminals have attracted the attention of many researchers for a long time. In the last few years, more and more technology demonstrations have been taking place with participants from both the public and the private sector. The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Japan has a long experience in this field. SOTA (Small Optical TrAnsponder) was the last NICT space lasercom mission, designed to demonstrate the potential of this technology applied to microsatellites. Since the beginning of SOTA mission in 2014, NICT regularly established communication using the Optical Ground Stations (OGS) located in the Headquarters at Koganei (Tokyo) to receive the SOTA signals, with over one hundred successful links. All the goals of the SOTA mission were fulfilled, including up to 10-Mbit/s downlinks using two different wavelengths and apertures, coarse and fine tracking of the OGS beacon, space-to-ground transmission of the on-board-camera images, experiments with different error correcting codes, interoperability with other international OGS, and experiments on quantum communications. The SOTA mission ended on November 2016, more than doubling the designed lifetime of 1-year. In this paper, the SOTA characteristics and basic operation are explained, along with the most relevant technological demonstrations.

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Section: Fig 3: Footprint Of the Sota Lasers On The Ogs Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

LEO-to-ground optical communications using SOTA (Small Optical TrAnsponder) – Payload verification results and experiments on space quantum communications

et al. 2017

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“…The transmitter aperture value is the maximum that can be accommodated in a 6U satellite without the use of deployable optics. The receiver aperture is comparable to the 600-mm primary mirror of the transportable optical ground station developed by DLR for downlink optical communication [62]. Furthermore, commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) 700-mm telescope systems are available from companies such as PlaneWave [63] that are purposed for satellite laser communications [64].…”

Section: Channel Lossesmentioning

confidence: 99%

QUARC: Quantum Research Cubesat—A Constellation for Quantum Communication

et al. 2020

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Quantum key distribution (QKD) offers future proof security based on fundamental laws of physics. Long-distance QKD spanning regions such as the United Kingdom (UK) may employ a constellation of satellites. Small satellites, CubeSats in particular, in low Earth orbit are a relatively low-cost alternative to traditional, large platforms. They allow the deployment of a large number of spacecrafts, ensuring greater coverage and mitigating some of the risk associated with availability due to cloud cover. We present our mission analysis showing how a constellation comprising 15 low-cost 6U CubeSats can be used to form a secure communication backbone for ground-based and metropolitan networks across the UK. We have estimated the monthly key rates at 43 sites across the UK, incorporating local meteorological data, atmospheric channel modelling and orbital parameters. We have optimized the constellation topology for rapid revisit and thus low-latency key distribution.

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“…In the previous years, optical satellite communications have gained increasing attention. The applicability of optical links in Space has been shown in a number of application scenarios, such as in inter-satellite-links [1], satellite-downlinks [2][3][4] and even Deep Space links [5]. More than 10 years ago, the German Aerospace Center DLR started to focus on optical communication from small satellite platforms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High data-rate optical communication payload for CubeSats

Rödiger¹,

Menninger²,

Fuchs³

et al. 2020

Laser Communication and Propagation Through the Atmosphere and Oceans IX

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Space industry has undergone a significant change over the last years. The development moved from large and costly spacecrafts to cost-efficient designs and shorter development times. While the satellites became smaller, the resolution of high compact sensors increased which led to a high data-volume to be transmitted and increasing demands for higher data rates on small satellites. This motivated for a highly compact version of DLR's optical communication payload OSIRIS for small LEO satellites. DLR's Institute of Communications and Navigation has developed the OSIRIS (Optical Space Infrared Downlink System) program starting with payloads on the satellites Flying Laptop of Univ. of Stuttgart and BiROS of DLR. Combining miniaturization to the flight-proven developments with novel concepts, OSIRIS4CubeSat allows integration in a standard CubeSat bus. The development of OSIRIS4CubeSat (industrialized under the product name "CubeLCT") is conducted in close collaboration with Tesat Spacecom, DLR's commercialization partner. The first implementation will be demonstrated within the PIXL-1-Mission on a 3Unit CubeSat. Furthermore, OSIRIS4CubeSat (O4C) has been chosen to support scientific missions together with university partners in the field of Quantum Key Distribution (QUBE). In the future, the modular design will enable extensions for optical inter-satellite links. This paper will give an overview about the development of the O4C payload and the current status of the PIXL-1-Mission. Furthermore, it will show the adaptation of the payload for the scientific mission QUBE. Besides these projects, the paper will give an outlook for future extensions of the O4C payload and the necessity of high data-rates in other scenarios such as inter-satellite links.

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Sota optical downlinks to DLR’s optical ground stations

Abstract: Optical Satellite Downlinks have gathered increasing attention in the last years.

Cited by 13 publications

References 13 publications

LEO-to-ground optical communications using SOTA (Small Optical TrAnsponder) – Payload verification results and experiments on space quantum communications

LEO-to-ground optical communications using SOTA (Small Optical TrAnsponder) – Payload verification results and experiments on space quantum communications

QUARC: Quantum Research Cubesat—A Constellation for Quantum Communication

High data-rate optical communication payload for CubeSats

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