Session
Session 8: Frank J. Redd Student Competition
Abstract
The increasing use of CubeSats (small satellites) for scientific and commercial applications has led to a need for reliable, high-rate communications capabilities. Traditional small satellite radio frequency communication systems require large, high gain receive apertures which are limited by the size, weight, and power constraints of CubeSat platforms, and thus make high-rate inter-satellite crosslinks difficult. Optical communications systems can use shorter visible or infrared wavelengths to transmit information at higher data rates with smaller systems. This project focuses on the development, test, and demonstration of an optical transceiver prototype that is compact enough to operate on a CubeSat in order to demonstrate optical crosslinks between small satellites.
Presentation
Nanosatellite Lasercom System
The increasing use of CubeSats (small satellites) for scientific and commercial applications has led to a need for reliable, high-rate communications capabilities. Traditional small satellite radio frequency communication systems require large, high gain receive apertures which are limited by the size, weight, and power constraints of CubeSat platforms, and thus make high-rate inter-satellite crosslinks difficult. Optical communications systems can use shorter visible or infrared wavelengths to transmit information at higher data rates with smaller systems. This project focuses on the development, test, and demonstration of an optical transceiver prototype that is compact enough to operate on a CubeSat in order to demonstrate optical crosslinks between small satellites.
